isturbed by grief for the loss of his son--an
assertion to which his frequent hallucinations lent some countenance,
though the existence of any serious derangement is disproved by the
lucidity and coherence of his last writings. He occupied his time at
Rome in the composition of his commentaries, _De Vita Propria_, which,
along with a companion treatise, _De Libris Propriis_, is our principal
authority for his biography. Though he had burned much, he left behind
him more than a hundred MSS., not twenty of which have been printed. He
died at Rome on the 21st of September 1576.

Alike intellectually and morally, Cardan is one of the most interesting
personages connected with the revival of science in Europe. He had no
especial bent towards any scientific pursuit, but appears as the man of
versatile ability, delighting in research for its own sake. He possessed
the true scientific spirit in perfection; nothing, he tells us, among
the king of France's treasures appeared to him so worthy of admiration
as a certain natural curiosity which he took for the horn of a unicorn.
It has been injurious to his fame to have been compelled to labour,
partly in fields of research where no important discovery was then
attainable, partly in those where his discoveries could only serve as
the stepping-stones to others, by which they were inevitably eclipsed.
His medical career serves as an illustration of the former case, and his
mathematical of the latter. His medical knowledge was wholly empirical;
restrained by the authority of Galen, and debarred from the practice of
anatomy, nothing more could be expected than that he should stumble on
some fortunate nostrums. As a mathematician, on the other hand, he
effected important advances in science, but such as merely paved the way
for discoveries which have obscured his own. From his astrology no
results could be expected; but even here the scientific character of his
mind is displayed in his common-sense treatment of what usually passed
for a mystical and occult study. His prognostications are as strictly
empirical as his prescriptions, and rest quite as much upon the
observations which he supposed himself to have made in his practice. As
frequently is the case with men incapable of rightly ordering their own
lives, he is full of wisdom and sound advice for others; his ethical
precepts and practical rules are frequently excellent. To complete the
catalogue of his accomplishments, he is no cont