240 
his will, Mr. Widmore fays he could 
never difcover from the Church archives 
that the money was brought to accompt. 
Ee that as_it may, the key-ftone of the 
Aat arch is {till marked by the port-cullis 
of Henry VII; the rents of feveral eftates, 
it appears, and fome annual contributions 
from the monks, were conftantly applied; 
the laft abbots took the dire&tion of the 
work upon themfelves; and the building 
‘ appears to have been ended about the year 
y500, although the two-towers which 
were afterward carried on, were not 
finifhed at the diffolution of the abbey. 
_ Such was the rife, and fuch the progrefs 
of the abbey of St Peter Weftminfter. 
And its hiftory is furely a ftrong inftance 
in proof of the truth of Sir Roger de Co- 
verly’s remark, that * church-work ‘is 
flow work.” If we are to confider it as 
exhibiting a picture of our national ftyle 
of aichitecture at any one period, it mutt 
Memoirs, &c. of Count Vittorio Alfieri. 
be that of Henry III, fince the remainder 
of the building appears to have been ac- 
commodated in a great meafure to the 
ftyle that was at firft adopted. 
But, perhaps, the patience of my reader 
is exhaufted, and I will clofe my paper 
with a fingle obfervation which has in part 
arifen from my prefent refearches. Would 
the Society of Antiquaries, inf+ad of 
engraving fome of the leaft! beautiful of 
our cathedrals, felecét the beft and mok 
beautiful varieties of archite&ure which 
occur in the refpective periods, and affit 
thofe who are inclined to perfevere in thefe 
refearches with correct data, the hiftory 
of our national architeture would receive 
a ftrenger light than their prefent exertions 
are calculated to throw upon it: and I 
direct my remark to that Society, becaute 
there are no individuals, I believe, who 
enjoy both fortune and fpirit adequate to 
the undertaking. : 
MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
PARTICULARS of the LIFE, and CRITI- 
_ CISM on the WORKS of COUNT VIT- 
TOR1O ALFIERI. ; ; 
HE following account of the life and 
works of the celebrated Alfieri is 
from the pen of M. de Feallette Barrol, 
a member of the Academy of Turin, and 
_one of the moft diftinguifhed Literati of 
italy, whofe refined taite, whofe perfonal 
acquaintance with the illuftrious poet, 
and whofe profound knowledge of the 
dtalian language, tend greatly toenhance 
the value of the obfervations which it 
contains. 
Vittorio Alfieri, who has given a new 
- Tpecies of celebrity to a name before an- 
cient and illuftrious in his native land, 
was bornat Afti, and educated at Turin. 
He manifefied, at an early age, three 
powerful inclinations ; the love of glory, 
the love of independence; and the love of 
travelling. He commenced his ftudies in 
~ France, and the firk effays of his pen 
were in the language of that country. 
‘This he, however, renounced, when he re- 
folved to devote himfelf to the cultivation 
of Italian poctry ; and he broke off all in- 
tercourfe with the French language and 
nation, when the excefies of the Revolu- 
tion had corrupted the-one, and difgraced 
the other. 
At the age of twenty he began toYtudy 
Latin, of which he had befere fcarcely 
acquired the rudiments 3 andat fifty com- 
menced the ftudy of Greek, with which 
he had no previous acquaintance. Con- 
vinced, like Democritus, Socrates, and ma- 
ny other great men, among whom may be 
reckoned Voltaire, that a perfon can ne- 
ver be too cld to learn, he devoted him- 
felf to the ftudy of Greek with fuch ar- 
dor and perfeverance, that he foon pro- 
duced a poetical tranflation of the Aleef- 
tis of Euripides, and the Philoctetes of 
Sophocles. He was at one time ambi- 
tious of compofing Latin verfes, and 
meanwhile exercifed himfelf in tranflating 
the Eneid into Italian verfe. In his early 
youth he had written Notes on Fleury’s 
Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, and had afterwards 
executed an epitome of a work, which 
ftands in great need of one, namely, Hel- 
vetius del E/prit. At the time when his 
genius was ftill wavering, and undecided 
in the choice of a career, he employed — 
himfelf in writing, in the French lan- 
guage, dialogues, allegories, and letters, 
inthe ftyle ef Addifon’s Speétator; and 
his firft eflays in Italian poetry were epi- 
grams and tales. A violent paflion, from 
which he endeavoured to difengage bim- 
felf, fuddenly m:tamorphofed him into 
an authorand airagic poet. The fame 
paffion furnifhed, if not the fubje&, at 
Jeaft the idea, of a Clecpatra, which he 
thought unworthy ‘to be printed, and 
which can only be regarded as a firft eflay? 
It deferves to be noticed, that Corneille, 
influenced 
ili ata a 
