The human form divine,
with few exceptions, is a devilish spectacle unless it is properly made up.
Some twenty years from now managers will discover what audiences found out
months ago, that a chorus girl's bare leg is infinitely less beautiful
than the same leg when duly disguised by petticoats and things."
Chapter 16. Conjuring and Circuses
After what I have said as to the position of the actor in China my readers
will not be surprised at my saying that the performance of a conjuror
should not be encouraged. What pleasure can there be in being tricked?
It may be a great display of dexterity to turn water into wine,
to seem to cut off a person's head, to appear to swallow swords,
to escape from locked handcuffs, and to perform the various cabinet tricks,
but cleverness does not alter the fact that after all it is only deception
cunningly contrived and performed in such a way as to evade discovery.
It appears right to many because it is called "legerdemain" and "conjuring"
but in reality it is exactly the same thing as that by which
the successful card-sharper strips his victims, viz., such quickness of hand
that the eye is deceived. Should we encourage such artful devices?
History tells many stories as to the way in which people
have been kept in superstitious bondage by illusions and magic,
and if it be now held to be right to deceive for fun
how can it be held to have been wrong to deceive for religion?
Those who made the people believe through practising deception
doubtless believed the trick to be less harmful than unbelief.
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