This early work from 1784 deals with a number of interesting subjects including conjuring, fortune telling, riddles, paradoxes, funny stories, math tricks, chemistry, electricity and other science tricks.
- DEDICATION
- PREFACE
- CHAP. I. The AIR BALLOON described, and how to make one, as has lately been done in France and England
- CHAP. II. Many clever Tricks, and pleasant Fancies, in the Art of Legerdemain
- To cause Mirth, and make Sport with Quick-silver
- Another Trick with Quick-silver
- To make a Six-pence seem to fall through a Table
- The Visible Invisible
- To fasten a Ring or a Six-pence at the End of a Piece of common Thread, and after burning the Thread, to leave the Ring hanging at the End of the Thread
- The learned little Swan, one of Mr. BRESLAW’S Grand Deceptions
- To take a Bird out of a Cage, and make it appear as dead, or to roll it about as you please
- CHAP. III. Containing a Variety of other curious Tricks and Fancies, by calculation, and other Means.
- How, on delivering a Ring to a Number of Persons, to find which Person has got it, which Hand it is on, which Finger, and which Joint
- How to rub out Twenty Chalks at five Times, rubbing out every Time an odd one
- A Person holding Gold in one Hand and Silver in the other, to find which the Gold is in and which the Silver
- To tell if a Person holds Gold in one Hand and Silver in the other, which Hand the Gold is in, and which the Silver is in
- To find the Number of Points cast on Three Dice
- To find the Points cast upon Two Dice
- To make a Person tired, or sweat, at carrying a small Stick out of a Room
- A Trick with a Cock
- A droll Trick played with a Fowl
- To make an Egg stand an end on a table or on a Looking-glass
- To put a Candle under Water, a-light, without its going out
- Various Performances and Deceptions with Cards
- For a Person to chuse a Card, you not supposed to know what it is, and then for the Person to hold the Cards between his Finger and Thumb, to strike them all out of his Hand but the very Card he had taken
- To tell what Card a Person thinks upon, though you are not in the Room, or which Card he has touched, or waved his Hand over
- To tell what Card you think on in the whole Pack
- How to deliver out Four Aces, and to convert them to Four Knaves
- To tell what Card a Person pitches on, without seeing the Card till you find it in the Pack
- To call for any Card in the Pack
- Shuffling of Cards so as to always keep one certain Card at the Bottom
- CHAP. IV. Containing Geographical Paradoxes
- CHAP. V. Dreams and their Interpretations, the Belief in Dreams established from Holy Writ, &c.
- CHAP. VI. Electricity. Strange Tricks performed by Electricity
- How to terrify such as are entirely unacquainted with the Nature of Phosphorus
- CHAP. VII. The Art of Fortune-telling by Cards
- Palmestry displayed, or the Art of telling Fortunes by Lines in the Hands
- Of Moles in every Pat of the Body, and the Explanation of them
- CHAP. VIII. Diverting Tricks, &c.
- To make one tumble and toss all Night, and not be able to sleep
- A merry Trick to make Sport in Company
- To make a Pea dance upon the End of a Piece of tobacco Pipe
- CHAP. IX. Comical Stories, Puns, Jokes, and Repartees
- Address of Miss Nancy Hard to Please
- RIDDLES
- Sentiments and Toasts
- Epigram
1st edition 1784, 120 pages; PDF 45 pages.word count: 18564 which is equivalent to 74 standard pages of text