PAGANINI treated his fellow -musicians and rivals with simple and unaffected courtesy. He expressed his great admiration of SPOHL's violin-playing, and he PAGANINI went all the way from Genoa to Milan to hear LAFONT. When they met, LAFONT proposed that they should give a concert, in which each should play a solo. "I excused myself," says PAGANINI, "by saying that such experiments are always impolitic, as the public invariably looked upon them as duels. LAFONT, not seeing it in this light, I was compelled to accept the challenge."Commenting upon the results, he added with singular candour and modesty: "LAFONT probably surpassed me in tone, but the applause which followed my efforts convinced me that I did not suffer by comparison."