differ.

CHAPTER IX.
THE SOUNDHOLES.

The next operation on the belly is cutting the _f_ or soundholes,
and I need hardly say (for it has been so often said, that surely
you must all be informed on this point), how the drawing, the
placing, and the cutting of this most crucial test of a man's powers
as an artist or workman, determines the extent of one or other, or
both; for a man may be the one, and show himself a blockhead as to
the other. You ask for originality, and you find copy, copy all over
the world; yet you may suddenly pounce on a line or two not seen in
combination before, most abominably in juxtaposition to their entire
opposites in curve as they are in grace as in character. For example
or examples, suppose I found, crowning the severe, almost rigid
column of the soundhole of Del Jesu, the mobile bend of Stradivari?
or, at the turn of the companion lines of Stradivari, the Gothic
arch of Del Jesu? with the base of each of a like nature--do you
think I should pass such without a severe growl of condemnation? And
yet I _have_ seen such; and I scarcely expect to go on to the end
without seeing more of such incongruous monstrosities, but I trust
not from any one who _can_ give one thought to character as applied
to form.

Fig. 13 is a rough example of the soundhole which I shall presently
stencil on to the belly just ready for it. As you will notice, the
soundhole is cut out of a piece of paper which follows the lines of
one of the lower corners. So, upon the corresponding corner of the
wood to be cut, I place this that represents the soundhole, exactly;
and I dip a small stiff brush into lampblack, not too wet, rather
dry than otherwise, and I dab on to the belly through the cut
impression of the soundhole--then I reverse the paper, doing exactly
the same at the other side of the wood. Of course, I know beforehand
that the impressions will be anything but perfect, or clear, or
alike; but I have a way of making them so in cutting, and you, many
of you, I hope, will soon acquire the same power. The general
feeling of active form, as I may say, must guide you; because, to
have the stencil plate by your hand as you seek to give vitality to
the dead form impressed on the wood, is one thing, but to copy it
slavishly, even though it be your own design, is another. In one
word, you must always _create_, no matter what work you are engaged
upon, and, in this case, two as original soundholes as lies in yo