And, apparently, what we think of as "magic" is not how the Elves conceived of their powers. Remember how Galadriel spoke with Sam as she showed the hobbits her "Mirror"? Sam had just spoken on the page before how he would "dearly love to see some Elf-magic."
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"And you?" she said, turning to Sam. "For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy. But this, if you will, is the magic of Galdadriel. Did you not say that you wished to see Elf-magic?"
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Sam, I'm afraid got more than he bargained for, as this was when he saw the terrible images of the Shire enslaved, as later happened in the Scouring.
I think Tolkien's big distinction in Middle-earth was not between magic and non-magic, but rather what uses people put their powers to. Tolkien frowned at any kind of overt manipulation of the environment, and saw it as corruption. This was true whether the corruption came through "magic" or the "technology" that someone like Saruman employed. In fact, I clearly remember reading somewhere---perhap the Letters?--that techonology of the modern world was often simply a modern means of corrupt magic, to wield control over things we should let grow and develop on their own.
So any discussion of magic in Tolkien is necessarily very complicated.
sharon, the 7th age hobbit
[ August 19, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]