turncoat, and is often in the majority and the minority in the course of a few minutes. He runs over the _flat_ as often as any Newmarket racehorse; both meet the same fate, as they usually terminate in a _cadence_; the difference is--one is driven by the _whip-hand_, the other by the _bow-arm_; one deals in _stakado_, the other in _staccato_. As a thoroughbred hound discovers, by instinct, his game from all other animals, so an experienced musician _feels_ the compositions of Handel or Corelli.--Yours, TIMOTHY CATGUT, Stamford."--_Monthly Mirror_. ORIGIN OF TARTINI'S "DEVIL'S SONATA." The following interesting account of this marvellous composition was given by Tartini to M. de Lalande, the celebrated astronomer:-- "One night in the year 1713, I dreamed that I had made a compact with his Satanic Majesty, by which he was received into my service. Everything succeeded to the utmost of my desire, and my every wish was anticipated by this my new domestic. I thought that on taking up my Violin to practise, I jocosely asked him if he could play on that instrument. He answered that he believed he was able to pick out a tune; and then, to my astonishment, began to play a sonata, so strange and yet so beautiful, and executed in so masterly a manner, that I had never in my life heard anything so exquisite. So great was my amazement that I could scarcely breathe. Awakened by the violent emotion, I instantly seized my Violin, in the hope of being able to catch some part of the ravishing melody which I had just heard, but all in vain. The piece which I composed according to my scattered recollection is, it is true, the best of my works. I have called it the 'Sonata del Diavolo,' but it is so far inferior to the one I heard in my dream, that I should have dashed my Violin into a thousand pieces, and given up music for ever, had it been possible to deprive myself of the enjoyments which I derive from it." [Illustration: The Devil Playing for Tartini.] In the "Reminiscences of Michael Kelly" we are told that in the year 1779 Kelly was at Florence, and that he was present at a concert given at the residence of Lord Cowper, where, he says, he had "the gratification of hearing a sonata on the Violin played by the great Nardini; though very far advanced in years, he played divinely. Lord Cowper requested him to play the popular sonata, composed by his master, Tartini, called the 'Devil's Sonata.' Mr. Jackson, an English gentleman present, asked Nardini whether the anecdote relative to this piece of music was true. Nardini answered that 'he had frequently heard Tartini relate the circumstance,' and at once gave an account of the composition, in accordance with that furnished by M. de Lalande." DR. JOHNSON AND THE VIOLIN.