Pasquale's head is strikingly like that of Alfieri. Although the latter, like Byron, aristocratic, proud, and unbendingly egotistic, widely differs in many respects from his contemporary, Pasquale—the peaceful, philanthrophic citizen; he had nevertheless a soul full of a marvellous energy, and burning with the hatred of tyranny. He could understand such a nature as Paoli's better than Frederick the Great. Frederick once sent to this house a present for Paoli—a sword bearing the inscription, Libertas, Patria. Away in distant Prussia, the great king took Pasquale for an unusually able soldier. He was no soldier; his brother Clemens was his sword; he was the thinking head—a citizen and a strong and high-hearted man. Alfieri comprehended him better, he dedicated his Timoleon to him, and sent him the poem with this letter:—
TO SIGNOR PASQUALE PAOLI, THE NOBLE DEFENDER OF CORSICA.
"To write tragedies on the subject of liberty, in the language of a country which does not possess liberty, will perhaps, with justice, appear mere folly to those who look no further than the present. But he who draws conclusions for the future from the constant vicissitudes of the past, cannot pronounce such a rash judgment. I therefore dedicate this my tragedy to you, as one of the enlightened few—one who, because he can form the most correct idea of other times, other nations, and high principles—is also worthy to have been born and to have been active in a less effeminate century than ours. Although it has not been permitted you to give your country its freedom, I do not, as the mob is wont to do, judge of men according to their success, but according to their actions, and hold you entirely worthy to listen to the sentiments of Timoleon, as sentiments which you are thoroughly able to understand, and with which you can sympathize.
Vittoria Alfieri."
Alfieri inscribed on the copy of his tragedy which he sent to Pasquale, the following verses:—
"To Paoli, the noble Corsican
Who made himself the teacher and the friend
Of the young France.
Thou with the sword hast tried, I with the pen,
In vain to rouse our Italy from slumber.