Publisher's Synopsis
The following appetizing introduction by Dr. A. M. Wilson, editor of the Sphinx on the merits of "New and Original Magic," by Edward M. Massey (Spon & Chamberlain), should attract the interest of book-buyers generally."That much-abused word original has found a proper setting in this book of Mr. Massey. Solomon said: 'There is no new thing under the sun.'"For many years past King Solomon's sayings could be applied to magic, but Mr. Massey has disproved the axiom and given us something new in practical magic. There lies latent in the brain of everyone a vision, a dream, an imaginary something that seeks to escape and become a reality, a tangible created thing of value. When Mr. Massey submitted his manuscript to me for judgment and criticism, I immediately thought of King David's expression: 'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, ' and paraphrased it to 'Out of the mind of the amateur has been born a new thing in magic'"Mechanical magic has been neglected and almost forgotten in the multitude of sleights and parlor tricks that have flooded the market and crowded to the wall the greater effects that demonstrate the science of magic or the magic of science. There has been a plethora of books on magic, but a paucity of magic in the books."New and Original Magic opens or revives an important and indispensable field for both amateur and professional performers. . . . Not since Professor Hoffmann's Modern Magic of forty-five years ago has there appeared a book on practical mechanical magic until Mr. Massey gave us this truly original work. Few indeed are the works that remain as permanent texts and guides for the worker in magic and mystery. I commend the book
