HE chief requisites for success in the performance of feats of Legerdemain are manual dexterity and self-possession. The former can only be acquired by practice; the latter will be the natural result of a well-grounded confidence. We subjoin a few preliminary hints, of considerable importance to the amateur exhibitor.

1. Never acquaint the company before-hand with the particulars of the feat you are about to perform, as it will give them time to discover your mode of operation.

2. Endeavour, as much as possible, to acquire various methods of performing the same feat, in order that if you should be likely to fail in one, or have reason to believe that your operations are suspected, you may be prepared with another.

3. Never yield to the request of any one to repeat the same feat, as you thereby hazard the detection of your mode of operation; but do not absolutely refuse, as that would appear ungracious. Promise to perform it in a different way, and then exhibit another which somewhat resembles it. This manoeuvre seldom fails to answer the purpose.

4. Never venture on a feat requiring manual dexterity, till you have previously practised it so often, as to acquire the necessary expertness.

5. As diverting the attention of the company from too closely inspecting your manœuvres is a most important object, you should manage to talk to them during the whole course of your proceedings. It is the plan of vulgar operators to gabble unintelligible jargon, and attribute their feats to some extraordinary and mysterious influence. There are few persons at the present day credulous enough to believe such trash, even among the rustic and most ignorant; but as the youth of maturer years might inadvertently be tempted to pursue this method, while exhibiting his skill before his younger companions, it may not be deemed superfluous to offer a caution against such a procedure. He may state, and truly, that every thing he exhibits can be accounted for on rational principles, and is only in obedience to the unerring laws of Nature; and although we have just cautioned him against enabling the company themselves to detect his operations, there can be no objection (particularly when the party comprises many younger than himself) to occasionally shew by what simple means the most apparently marvellous feats are accomplished.

THE RING AND THE HANDKERCHIEF.

This may be justly considered one of the most surprising deceptions; and yet it is so easy of performance, that any one may accomplish it after a few minutes' practice.

You previously provide yourself with a piece of brass wire, pointed at both ends, and bent round so as to form a ring, about the size of a wedding-ring. This you conceal in your hand. You then commence your performance by borrowing a silk pocket handkerchief from a gentleman, and a wedding-ring from a lady; and you request one person to hold two of the corners of the handkerchief, and another to hold the other two, and to keep them at full stretch. You next exhibit the wedding-ring to the company, and announce that you will make it pass through the handkerchief. You then place your hand under the handkerchief, and substituting the false ring, which you had previously concealed, press it against the centre of the handkerchief, and desire a third person to take hold of the ring through the handkerchief, and to close his finger and thumb through the hollow of the ring. The handkerchief is held in this manner for the purpose of shewing that the ring has not been placed within a fold. You now desire the persons holding the corners of the handkerchief to let them drop; the person holding the ring (through the handkerchief as already described) still retaining his hold.

Let another person now grasp the handkerchief as tight as he pleases, three or four inches below the ring, and tell the person holding the ring to let it go, when it will be quite evident to the company that the ring is secure within the centre of the handkerchief. You then tell the person who grasps the handkerchief to hold a hat over it, and passing your hand underneath, you open the false ring, by bending one of its points a little aside, and bringing