d corner-blocks as made by Gasparo
and all makers to the present time, in contradistinction to those seen
in the Viol da Gamba and early German Viols.]

SECTION II
The Construction of the Violin

The construction of the present form of the Violin has occupied the
attention of many scientific men. It cannot be denied that the subject
possesses a charm sufficiently powerful to induce research, as
endeavour is made to discover the causes for the vast superiority of
the Violin of the seventeenth century over the many other forms of bow
instruments which it has survived. The characteristic differences of
the Violin have been obtained at the cost of many experiments in
changing the outline and placing the sound-holes in various
incongruous positions. These, and the many similar freaks of inventors
in their search after perfection, have signally failed, a result to be
expected when it is considered that the changes mentioned were
unmeaning, and had nothing but novelty to recommend them. But what is
far more extraordinary is the failure of the copyist, who, vainly
supposing that he has truthfully followed the dimensions and general
features of the Old Masters, at last discovers that he is quite unable
to construct an instrument in any way deserving of comparison with the
works of the period referred to. The Violin has thus hitherto baffled
all attempts to force it into the "march of progress" which most
things are destined to follow. It seems to scorn complication in its
structure, and successfully holds its own in its simplicity. There is
in the Violin, as perfected by the great Cremonese masters, a
simplicity combined with elegance of design, which readily courts the
attention of thoughtful minds, and gives to it an air of mystery that
cannot be explained to those outside the Fiddle world. Few objects
possess so charming a display of curved lines as the members of the
Violin family. Here we have Hogarth's famous line of beauty worked to
perfection in the upper bouts,[1] in the lower bouts, in the outer
line of the scroll, in the sound-hole. Everywhere the perfection of
the graceful curve is to be seen. It has been asserted by Hogarth's
enemies that he borrowed the famous line from an Italian writer named
Lomazzo, who introduced it in a treatise on the Fine Arts. We will be
more charitable, and say that he obtained it from the contemplation of
the beauties of a Cremonese Violin.

[Footnote 1: A technical term for t