Explore "The Humbugs of the World" by P.T. Barnum on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Magical humbugs -- Virgil -- A pickled sorcerer -- Cornelius Agrippa -- His students and his black dog -- Doctor Faustus -- Humbugging horse-jockeys -- Ziito and his large swallow -- Salamanca -- Devil take the hindmost.
Magic, sorcery, witchcraft, enchantment, necromancy, conjuring, incantation, soothsaying, divining, the black art, are all one and the same humbug. They show how prone men are to believe in some supernatural power, in some beings wiser and stronger than themselves, but at the same time how they stop short, and find satisfaction in some debasing humbug, instead of looking above and beyond it all to God, the only being that it is really worth while for man to look up to or beseech.