Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/540

Rh 502 A L F A L F multiplicity and diversity, issue from this absolutely one and identical being 1 Here Al-Farabi neo-platonises. It proceeds by emanation. The absolute Being knows itself, and in virtue of this knowledge the first intelligence exists. He does not explain how self-consciousness comes to be inseparable from necessary existence, but his dynamic, at this and all the lower stages, is self-knowledge ; and indeed the act of knowing and the resultant existence appear at this height of abstraction to be all but identical. The first intelligence, intrinsically a unity, contains multiplicity, because it is no longer devoid of attributes. In so far as it necessarily exists, it evolves the second intelligence ; in so far as it is merely potential being, and knows itself, it evolves the world-soul and the uppermost world-circle, which is moved by that soul. Similarly descending intel ligences, ever-wider world-circles and the corresponding souls, are evolved by the same process of emanation, down to the active reason, which is most nearly related to the earthly elements and human souls. The active reason, by its contact with matter, impresses on it forms, of which the human soul is one, with greater or less permanence according to the degree in which it is immersed in, or rises above, matter. The forms decline in permanence the further we descend below the active reason, and the matter which has least form is the limit of emanation. There is here nothing like what is now called evolution : the con ception of the universe is, as in all theories of emanation, really statical, not dynamical, for the ideas of cause and perpetual causation do not yet exist ; and of course the process is the reverse of that implied in the modern development theory. (For information on Al-Farabi, see Munk, Melanges, pp. 341-52; and Steinschneider, Memoires de V Academic de St Petersboury, vii. sdrie, torn. xiii. Two of his opuscula have been translated by Schmolders, Documenta Philosophies Arabum, and two are contained in Alpliarabii Opera Omnia, Parisiis, 1638.) ALFIERI, VITTORIO, chiefly celebrated as the author who raised the Italian tragic drama from its previous state of degradation, was born on the 17th January 1749, at the town of Asti, in Piedmont. He lost his father in early infancy ; but he continued to reside with his mother, who married a second time, till his tenth year, when he was placed at the academy of Turin. After he had passed a twelvemonth at the academy, he went on a short visit to a relation who dwelt at Coni ; and during his stay there he made his first poetical attempt, in a sonnet chiefly borrowed from lines in Ariosto and Metastasio, the only poets he had at that time read. When thirteen years of age he was induced to commence the study of civil and canonical law ; but the attempt only served to disgust him with every species of application, and to increase his relish for the perusal of French romances. By the death of his uncle, who had hitherto taken some charge of his education and conduct, he was left, at the age of fourteen, to enjoy without control his vast paternal inheritance, augmented by the recent accession of his uncle s fortune. He now began to attend the riding-school, where he acquired that rage for horses and equestrian exercise which continued to be one of his strongest passions till the close of his existence. After some time spent in alternate fits of extravagant dissipation and ill-directed study, he was seized with a desire of travelling ; and having obtained permission from the king, he departed in 1766, under the care of an English preceptor. Restless and unquiet, he posted with the utmost rapidity through the towns of Italy; and his improvement was such as was to be expected from his mode of travelling and his previous habits. Hoping to find in foreign countries some relief from the tedium and ennui with which he was oppressed, and being anxious to become acquainted with the French theatre, he proceeded to Paris. But he appears to have been completely dissatisfied with everything he witnessed in France, and contracted a dislike to its people, which his intercourse in future years rather contributed to augment than diminish. In Holland he became deeply enamoured of a married lady, who returned his attachment, but who was soon obliged to accompany her husband to Switzerland. Alfieri, whose feelings were of the most impetuous description, was in despair at this separation, and returned to his own country in the utmost anguish and despondency of mind. While under this depression of spirits he was induced to seek alleviation from works of literature ; and the perusal of Plutarch s Lives, which he read with profound emotion, inspired him with an enthusiastic passion for freedom and independence. Under the influence of this rage for liberty he recommenced his travels ; and his only gratification, in the absence of freedom among the Continental states, appears to have been derived from contemplating the wild and sterile regions of the north of Sweden, where gloomy forests, lakes, and precipices conspired to excite those sublime and melancholy ideas which were congenial to his disposition. Everywhere his soul felt as if confined by the bonds of society; he panted for something more free in government, more elevated in sentiment, more devoted in love, and more perfect in friendship. In search of this ideal world he posted through various countries, more with the rapidity of a courier than of one who travels for amuse ment or instruction. During a journey to London, he engaged in an intrigue with a married lady of high rank ; and having been detected, the publicity of a rencounter with the injured husband, and of a divorce which followed, rendered it expedient and desirable for him to quit England. He then visited Spain and Portugal, where he became acquainted with the Abb6 Caluso, who remained through life the most attached and estimable friend ho ever possessed. In 1772 Alfieri returned to Turin, where he again became enamoured of a lady, whom he loved with his usual ardour, and who seems to have been as undeserv ing of a sincere attachment as those he had hitherto adored. In the course of a long attendance on his mistress, during a malady with which she was afflicted, he one day wrote a dialogue or scene of a drama, which he left at her house. On a difference taking place between them, the piece was returned to him, and being retouched and extended to five acts, it was performed at Turin in 1775, under the title of Cleopatra. From this moment Alfieri was seized with an insatiable thirst for theatrical fame, and the remainder of his life was devoted to its attainment. His first two tragedies, Filippo and Polinice, were originally written in French prose ; and when he came to versify them in Italian, he found that, from his Lombard origin, and long intercourse with foreigners, he expressed himself with feebleness and inaccuracy. Accordingly, with the view of improving his Italian style, he went to Tuscany, and, during an alternate residence at Florence and Siena, he completed his Filippo and Polinice, and conceived the plan of various other dramas. While thus employed, he became acquainted with the Countess of Albany, who then resided with her husband at Florence. For her he formed an attachment which, if less violent than his former loves, appears to have been more permanent. With this motive to remain at Florence, he could not endure the chains by which his vast posses sions bound him to Piedmont. He therefore resigned his whole property to his sister, the Countess Cumiana, reserv ing an annuity which scarcely amounted to a half of his original revenues. At this period the Countess of Albany, urged by the ill-treatment she received from her husband, sought refuge in Rome, where she at length received per mission from the pope to live apart from her tormentor.