earliest opera; the second time, when, in a boat with some friends, a
turkey stuffed with truffles fell overboard; and thirdly, when I heard
Paganini play for the first time."

Spohr, after hearing him play, in 1830, said: "Paganini came to Cassel
and gave two concerts, which I heard with great interest. His left hand
and his constantly pure intonation were, to me, astonishing; but in his
compositions and his execution I found a strange mixture of the highly
genial and the childishly tasteless, by which one felt alternately
charmed and disappointed."

George Hogarth, the musical critic, writes about Paganini's "running up
and down a single string, from the nut to the bridge, for ten minutes
together, or playing with the bow and the fingers of his right hand,
mingling pizzicato and arcato notes with the dexterity of an Indian
juggler." It was not, however, by such tricks as these, but in spite of
them, that he gained the suffrages of those who were charmed by his
truly great qualities,--his soul of fire, his boundless fancy, his
energy, tenderness, and passion; these are the qualities which give him
a claim to a place among the greatest masters of the art.

Perhaps the finest description of Paganini is the one written by Leigh
Hunt:

"So play'd of late to every passing thought
With finest change (might I but half as well
So write) the pale magician of the bow,
Who brought from Italy the tales, made true,
Of Grecian lyres; and on his sphery hand,
Loading the air with dumb expectancy,