t.
A year or so later we find him again making use of wood from the same
cuttings, which proves satisfactorily that he did not work up one
piece before commencing with another. He would seem to have kept back
the handsomest wood for certain important commissions. I have seen
three Stradivari Violins of 1714, with backs having but little figure,
yet this was the year in which he made the "Dolphin," which is
regarded by the chief connoisseurs in Europe as a _chef-d'oeuvre_ of
Stradivari. From the days when it was in the possession of the Marquis
de la Rosa to the present time, its beauty has excited the admiration
of the Fiddle world. The splendour of the wood is unsurpassed in any
Violin, ancient or modern, and it was named the "Dolphin" from the
richness and variety of the tints it gives to the varnish. The model
is perfection; its solidity of construction and glorious varnish all
tend to make it unique. Its beauty is of a kind that does not require
the eye of the skilled connoisseur to recognise it; it causes those to
exclaim whose knowledge is limited to being aware that it is a Fiddle.
His making this superb work of art in the same year in which he made
instruments having wood quite opposite in figure, bears out, I
consider, what I have before stated, viz., that Stradivari jealously
guarded the material he possessed having both handsome figure and
valuable acoustical properties. Mr. Charles Reade says of these
"Strads": "When a red Stradivari Violin is made of soft, velvety wood,
and the varnish is just half worn off the back in a rough triangular
form, that produces a certain beauty of light and shade which is, in
my opinion, the _ne plus ultra_. These Violins are rare; I never had
but two in my life."

[Illustration: _Plate XII_. GIUSEPPE GUARNERI DEL GESU. 1738. (B.
SINSHEIMER, ESQ.) THE "DOLPHIN" STRAD. Date 1714. ANTONIO STRADIVARI.
1718. (W. S. McMILLAN, ESQ.)]

It is conceivable that a manufacture so successful as Violin-making
proves itself to have been in Italy during the seventeenth and part of
the eighteenth centuries, should give rise to scientific inquiry, in
order to discover the reason of the excellence of the best Italian
instruments, and, if possible, the principles or laws which guided the
makers in the exercise of their genius. That investigations of this
character should be attended with important results in connection with
the science of acoustics, is to be expected. As to laws or principles
o