seless Ali Pacha of Yanina.
The expressive lineaments of Paganini told a powerful tale of passions
which had been fearfully excited, which might be roused again from
temporary slumber, or were exhausted by indulgence and premature decay,
leaving deep furrows to mark their intensity. Like the generality of his
countrymen, he looked much older than he was. With them, the elastic
vigor of youth and manhood rapidly subside into an interminable and
joyless old age, numbering as many years but with far less both of
physical and mental faculty, to render them endurable, than the more
equally poised gradations of our northern clime. It is by no means
unusual to encounter a well-developed Italian, whiskered to the
eyebrows, and "bearded like the pard," who tells you, to your utter
astonishment, that he is scarcely seventeen, when you have set him down
from his appearance as, at least, five-and-thirty.

The following extract from Colonel Montgomery Maxwell's book of Military
Reminiscences, entitled, "My Adventures," dated Genoa, February 22nd,
1815, supplies the earliest record which has been given to the public
respecting Paganini, and affords authentic evidence that some of the
mysterious tales which heralded his coming were not without foundation.
He could scarcely have been at this time thirty years old. "Talking of
music, I have become acquainted with the most _outre_, most extravagant,
and strangest character I ever beheld, or heard, in the musical line. He
has just been emancipated from durance vile, where he has been for a
long time incarcerated on suspicion of murder. His long figure, long
neck, long face, and long forehead; his hollow and deadly pale cheek,
large black eye, hooked nose, and jet black hair, which is long, and
more than half hiding his expressive, Jewish face; all these rendered
him the most extraordinary person I ever beheld. There is something
scriptural in the _tout ensemble_ of the strange physiognomy of this
uncouth and unearthly figure. Not that, as in times of old, he plays, as
Holy Writ tells us, on a ten-stringed instrument; on the contrary, he
brings the most powerful, the most wonderful, and the most heart-rending
tones from one string. His name is Paganini; he is very improvident and
very poor. The D----s, and the Impressario of the theatre got up a
concert for him the other night, which was well attended, and on which
occasion he electrified the audience. He is a native of Genoa, and if I
wer