Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1884-10-01
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payanini. the (scniaS.


A young man who has imbibed tho
notion that he is q genius is apt to lose
his balance. The fattery Of friends
makes him 30 vsin that he imagines
that he, at least, may attain wfti,uus
labor. He ignores mental discipline.
because it involves hard study. He
trusts to his genius to push him up,
and sinks.
Scores of young men 60 to pieces at
the beginning of the voyage, when they
might have entered port with every
sail drawing, had they taken their de-
parture from Carlyle's definition of
genius: A capacity for infinite pains
taking.
All Europe hailed Paganini as gen.
ius. During forty years he reigned the
monarch of the violin, no rival near his
throne.
If any one was ever born violin
he was. As soon as he could hold the
violin he began to play it. The wor-
shippers in the churches OF Genoa often
looked towards the choir to see o child
playing on violin almost as large as
himself.
His genius was phenomenal. Itgave
him capacity, and urged him to de-
velop it by intense application. His
precocity astonished those from whom
he sought instruction: but they were
amazed at the zeal and rapidity with
which he worked at his lessons. He
soon exhausted their ability to instruct
and SO passed on from one great teacher
to another.
He went to Rol.n, the great musician
of Parma. The master was i'll in bed,
and Paganini waited in the ante-rcom.
Some sheets OF difficult music were ly-
ing on the table, alongside Of . violin.
The boy looked at the music, and began
playing it.
who is the great master playing in
my ante room?" asked Rolla, raising
himself to listen.
"A mere boy! impossible!" no ex-
claimed on being told that the player
was mere lad, who wished TO become
o pupil.
When Paganini appeared before the
invalid's bed. the master said, II can
teach you nothing
The boy had practised ten or twelve
hours day. He would try Q passage
over and over again in different ways,
with such perseverance, that at nightfall
he was exhausted BY fatigue. He COM
posed as we'll as practised, writing
music 30 difficult that he could not play
it until he had mastered it by incessant
prac ice.
Let the reader note the working Of
the boys genius. It prompted him tc
compose hard task to be mastered by
himself. 1t kept him up to his work
day after day, until he had mastered
the task. The boy had capacity for
infinite painstaking.
The boys genius made him thorough
Faraday used to begin his investigation
OF phenomenon by learning all that
other scientists had written about II.
With similar thoroughness young
Paganini acquired knowledge OF
what other violinists had done or left
undone.
He would have knowledge as we'll as
art, so that he might not iail through
ignorance or plagiarism. He worked
hard TO produce new effects and combi.
nations. He sighed for . now world
for he had explored the old. His ex-
plorations gave him his point Of depar-
ture. He sailed from it and discovered
. new world in which he had no master,
no equal. no follower.
His art was born with him. but he
developed 1t by study and practice.
When he died men said he carried his
secret with him to the grave. 1t may
be so: but the intelligent reader Of his
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