“In matters of art every one thinks he has the right to give his judgment (in general this is not wrong); but among a hundred, who judge, there is hardly one who thinks, if the work does not please him, that the fault might be his own. (Lichtenberg makes the same observation thus: when a book and a head come in contact, giving a hollow sound, it does not always originate in the book).”

“Handel’s Messiah”, The Musical Magazine [Boston] 31 July 1841: 228.