l
work, art work above all, be sternly trodden under foot, and the
solid and truthful experience of ripe years offered with the same
eagerness to impart information as it is awaited by the student.

If you spend ten minutes in _telling_ a man what form an oval
assumes, when you can, by drawing it for him on a blackboard,
present it before his eye in one minute, and more to the purpose,
you not only waste your own time but his also, and commit a breach
of trust, in that you mislead and mystify when it was your duty to
faithfully guide and teach in all sincerity and simplicity.

Therefore I propose, in the following pages, to adopt an entirely
different treatment from any work I have had the honour of studying
on the construction of the violin; writing as though orally
addressing the students, or those anxious to become students, of the
whole world--a vast semicircle of bright faced, intelligent
creatures before me, following eagerly every movement of the
numerous tools I use in the extremely delicate manipulations of the
instrument as it almost imperceptibly assumes that form so noble and
so beloved, and almost devouring the, I hope, lucid explanations,
which, from time to time, I may think it necessary to make, and
which will appear as letterpress, the illustrations speaking for
themselves as the work progresses.

This little thing that I am about to make, this shell of scarce
sixteen ounces in weight, constructed of about eighty pieces of
wood, and united by glue as one complete whole; this, that is a
mighty factor, where mirth, and mirth only, is to the fore, in its
embodiment; this, that draws from the soul the tear which has long
yearned for an outlet of intense sympathy such as it now finds;
this, that beautifies as it ennobles to the pinnacle of sublimity
all music, even as it takes it by the hand, guides and cements it.

What is the origin of this violin or fiddle, and to what country
does the honour belong?

To this day its origin, as a violin, is a contested point, and in my
opinion will so remain; that is to say, how it worked its way, so to
speak, out of now obsolete instruments, into what it is (for it was
certainly a growth, not a complete conception), by whom it was so
worked, and where--these points, aggravating points, if you will,
seeing there is nothing of clearness around them, had better be left
by you where they are; for, when Germany and Italy are supposed
strong claimants, and assert a righ