Many delusions are entirely dependent on _sleight-of-hand_; a rapidity of manipulation being attained by long practice, as in the marvellous movements of the fingers of a highly accomplished instrumental performer; while the power may become so great as to defy the observation of the acutest vision. The late Mr. Walker, minister at Demattar, in the Mears, told sir Walter Scott of a young country girl, who threw turf, stones, and other missiles, with such dexterity, that it was, for a time, impossible to ascertain the agency employed in the disturbances of which she was the sole cause. A friend of the writer has a remarkable nicety of touch, and, at pleasure, a rapid movement of the hands, by which he can rival many magical feats. Thus he conveys balls under cups, and appears to change them into fruit, to the astonishment of lookers-on. He also takes two horn cups of exactly the same size, and produces the impression that he causes one to fall through the other, when this is impossible, and all that is done is effected by dexterous and rapid manipulation, illustrating the proverb, “The hand is quicker than the eye.” Many astounding feats, which form a part of all popular magical exhibitions, are performed by this leger-de-main. Apparently, the performer receives a lady’s wedding-ring and breaks it in pieces; burns a five-pound note handed to him by a spectator; reduces a hat to a hideous shape; or crushes a bonnet into fragments, and then restores them uninjured to the respective parties, amidst the acclamations of the multitude. But all that is done is with indescribable rapidity to substitute articles of his own to undergo the process of destruction, and, at the right moment, to exhibit those which have been presented by the spectators, and are preserved in safety. Another cause of wonderment is _confederacy_. A modern performer has been accustomed to hand a box to one of his audience, requesting that in it might be placed any article that he had, and that it might be passed on from one to another for the same purpose. While this has been done, he has proceeded to his table, and apparently waited the filling of the box. At length, while the box has been held up at a distance, he has placed his rod to his eye and described the collection that has been made. He has said, perhaps, “I can see in that box a piece of ribbon, a lozenge, a few grains, part, I dare say, of a pinch of snuff, and a lady’s card; I will try and read it--Miss--Clara--Henderson;” and so he passes through the chief part of the series. And yet, as his patrons look on with astonishment, they do not think of what is most likely to be the fact, that a confederate, sitting as one of the audience, made a list of the articles as they were deposited in the box, and despatched it in portions or altogether, so that their names might reach the eye of the performer from some part of his table.