IN a company of artists, the conversation turned on the subject, whether
self-taught men could arrive at the perfection of genius combined with
instruction. A German musician maintained the affirmative, and gave
himself as an example. "I have," said he, "made a fiddle, which turns
out as good as any Cremona I ever drew a bow over, all _out of my own
head_; aye, and I have got _wood enough left to make another_."