From the PREFACE.
THE average person who becomes possessed of an optical lantern does not care two straws about the philosophy which tells him that his instrument is the lineal descendant of the dim and smelly toy-thing of the past — he recks but little of Roger Bacon and Athanasius Kircher — all he cares about is the present means of exhibiting his pictures to the best possible advantage. That is the reason why all reference to the history and evolution of the lantern has been omitted. This little manual is not designed for the expert, who would probably be bored to death by the recapitulation of much familiar matter, but for the novice, for schoolmasters who wish to combine the advantages of "Eye-gate" and "Ear-gate," those twin approaches to youthful intellects. In this book the graces of literary diction have been sacrificed to perfect clearness, and all instructions are written in the baldest, plainest English. Here and there the author has not hesitated to give utterance to a homely bit of slang, if his meaning can thereby be rendered the plainer.
–J. A. MANTON