[2] In his Table Talk (1821) Hazlitt recalled the opening routine: '... the chief of the Indian Jugglers begins with tossing up two brass balls, which is what any of us could do, and concludes with keeping up four at the same time, which is what none of us could do to save our lives... to make them revolve round him at certain intervals, like the planets in their spheres, to make them chase one another like sparkles of fire, or shoot up like flowers or meteors, to throw them behind his back and twine them round his neck like ribbons or like serpents...with all the ease, the grace, the carelessness imaginable... is skill surmounting difficulty, and beauty triumphing over skill.'
