564 PSYCHOLOGY OF PRESTIDIGITATION. 



understood that it is uot always an easy matter to escape the vigilant 

 watch of the spectators. They come to the performance to see, and 

 from the moment the cnrtain rises and the artist appears on the stage 

 all eyes are riveted upon him, and as he is entirely surrounded by light, 

 how is it possible to prevent the spectators from directing their atten- 

 tion to the particular spot where tlie illusion is to be produced? 



To accomplish this the prestidigitator has recourse to a psychologi- 

 cal law, of which he no doubt knows nothing, ;ind Avhich he has never 

 heard explained. Prestidigitation rests on psychology. We have just 

 shown hoAv the law of association of ideas explains positive illusicms. 

 Those that come under the head of negative illusions are explained l)y 

 this other law, which can be exjn^essed thus: We have a tendency to 

 perceive only exterior objects which attract our attention. All percep- 

 tion is optional with us; numerous sensations are constantly vibrating 

 our organs of sense; we neglect the greater part of them, because they 

 are of no interest; we fix our attention only on certain ones, the signifi- 

 cant ones; these alone traverse the threshold of our mind; they become 

 the objects of our reasoning, suggest to us past events, and ])lay a part 

 in our interior life. Although each one's individual attention is more 

 particularly attracted by this or by that, for instance, this one is apt to 

 be more observant of forms, that one of color, and so on, yet there are 

 certain rules of i^erception Avhicli are general; a priori we can desig- 

 nate certain objects which command our whole attention and certain 

 others which are only i^erceived with the corner of the eye and neg- 

 lected and quickly, forgotten. This uniformity of reactions before the 

 same spectacles is known to i)restidigitatioii and it profits by it. When 

 it is i)articularly important that certain peculiarities of a trick be not 

 observed, even in the broad light, matters are so arranged that the 

 attention of the spectators is drawn to another point at the decisive 

 moment or an appearance of insignificance is given to the act, which 

 produces a relaxation of attention. The attention is thus distracted 

 and deadened; these are the two principal means of rendering invisible 

 a spectacle which is perfectly visible to all eyes. 



The distraction of the attention will be easily understood by a few 

 examples. When the eyes of all the spectators are directed toward 

 the artist he may easily divert their attention to another point by him- 

 self looking in a perfectly natural manner toward this point; should 

 he turn to the right all the spectators will obediently follow his gaze. 

 It is understood, though, he must uot turn too (piickly; it is best 

 to make the movement sh)Avly and naturally. This is the A B O of 

 the art. Should the artist wish to play a trick with the right hand let 

 him turn toward the left; to conceal a movement made by the left hand 

 he must turn to the right. Thus the attitude of his body indicates to 

 the spectators in which direction their attention should be directed. 

 The mere fact of speaking causes the removal of attention. Mr. Max 

 Dessoir has already observed that when the artist takes up a pack of 



