Scan 390
The violin, its famous makers and their imitators, 1887
16 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1of daring resolution, so that I was inclined to rush into the thickest part of the battle. 'Sir,' said he, 'I should never hear it if it made me such a fool.'"—Boswell's "Life of Johnson."
3DR. JOHNSON ON THE DIFFICULTY OF PLAYING THE FIDDLE.
5"Goldsmith: 'I spoke of Mr. Harris, of Salisbury, as being a very learned man, and in particular an eminent Grecian.'
7"Johnson: 'I am not sure of that. His friends give him out as such, but I know not who of his friends are able to judge of it.'
9"Goldsmith: 'He is what is much better; he is a worthy, humane man.'
11"Johnson: 'Nay, sir, that is not to the purpose of our argument; that will as much prove that he can play upon the Fiddle as well as Giardini, as that he is an eminent Grecian.'
13"Goldsmith: 'The greatest musical performers have but small emoluments; Giardini, I am told, does not get above seven hundred a year.'
15"Johnson: 'That is indeed but little for a man to get, who does best that which so many endeavour to do. There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shown so much as in playing on the Fiddle. In all other things we can do something at first; any man will forge a bar of iron if you give him a hammer; not so well as a smith, but tolerably; and make a box, though a clumsy one; but give him a Fiddle and a Fiddlestick, and he can do nothing.'"—Boswell's "Life of Johnson."
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