I contend, therefore, that people who go to see conjuring performances derive no good from them, but that, on the contrary, they are apt to be impressed with the idea that to practise deception is to show praiseworthy skill.

It is strange how many people pay money to others to deceive them.

More than ever before, people to-day actually enjoy being cheated.

If the tricks were clumsily devised and easily detected there would be no attraction, but the cleverer and more puzzling the trick the more eagerly people flock to see it.
Christian preachers and moralists could do well to take up this matter and discourage people from frequenting the exhibitions of tricksters.
There are doubtless many laws in nature yet undiscovered, and a few persons undoubtedly possess abnormal powers.

This makes the cultivation of the love of trickery the more dangerous.