The violin is said to be the "king of instruments;" but, by this, reference is made to those powers and extensive resources of expression that are made manifest when the instrument is subject to the brain and hand of the very skilful performer. At such a time it is made to sing a song, which, readily awakening the sympathies of the soul, causes the listener to recognize and feel the effects of the intonations of pathos, of passion, of deepest melancholy, or those of lightsomeness and wildest joy. Indeed, this noble instrument, under the deft fingering and skilful bowing of a master-player, becomes almost sentient, and is shown to possess the superior and exclusive power of expressing nearly all the human voice can produce except the articulation of words. A music-teacher once wrote that "the art of playing on the violin requires the nicest perception and the most sense of any art in the known world;" and many there are who will agree with him. The purity, the sweetness, of its tones,--to produce which calls into exercise the most delicate faculties of the mind,--and the power of these tones to awaken in the heart the most tender feelings, to lead the performer at times into delightful imaginations, into pleasing, restful reveries,--it is the possession of such charming qualities as these that has rendered the violin at all times the favorite companion of the leisure moments of men eminent in the walks of literature, of princes, and other persons of taste and refinement. Some among those first mentioned have excelled as violin-performers, notwithstanding their other occupations. Girardini, when asked how long it would take to learn to play the violin, replied, "Twelve hours a day for twenty years." Another thus intimates how long and arduous must be the toil before its mastery can be acquired:-- "The difficulty of thoroughly mastering the violin--the difficulty, that is, of combining perfect execution with brilliancy of tone and perfect expression--is so vast, that nothing short of indomitable patience and perseverance, united with those indispensable faculties which all good players must possess, will succeed in overcoming them. 'Twelve years' practice,' says a musical critic, 'on the violin, will produce about as much proficiency as one year's practice on the piano.' If that is so, we may well imagine that a man, who by dint of perseverance has at length qualified himself to take his place in an orchestra, may content himself by merely maintaining his acquired skill, without attempting to rival the great heads of the profession.