154 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



Kircher till towards the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 Cellini having died in 1570, and Kircher having been 

 born in 1601. There is no doubt that the effects described 

 could be produced by this instrument, but we are not 

 entitled to have recourse to any other means of explana- 

 tion but those which were known to exist at the time of 

 Cellini. If we suppose, however, that the necromancer 

 either had a regular magic lantern, or that he had fitted 

 up his concave mirror in a box containing the figures of 

 his devils, and that this box with its lights was carried 

 home with the party, we can easily account for the decla- 

 ration of the boy, " that, as they were going home to their 

 houses in the quarter of Banchi, two of the demons whom 

 we had seen at the amphitheatre, went on before us leaping 

 and skipping, sometimes running upon the roofs of the houses, 

 and sometimes upon the ground." 



The introduction of the magic lantern as an optical in- 

 strument, supplied the magicians of the seventeenth century 

 with one of their most valuable tools. The use of the 

 concave mirror, which does not appear to have been even 

 put up into the form of an instrument, required a separate 

 apartment, or at least that degree of concealment which 

 it was difficult on ordinary occasions to command ; but 

 the magic lantern, containing in a small compass its 

 lamp, its lenses, and its sliding figures, was peculiarly 

 fitted for the itinerant conjurer, who had neither the 

 means of providing a less portable and more expensive 

 apparatus, nor the power of transporting and erecting it. 



The magic lantern shown in the annexed figure consists 

 of a dark lantern A B, containing a lamp G, and a con- 

 cave metallic mirror M N ; and it is so constructed that 

 when the lamp is lighted, not a ray of light is able to 

 escape from it. Into the side of the lantern is fitted a 

 double tube C D, the outer half of which D, is capable 

 of moving within the other half. A large plano-convex 



