me on to undertake the
task of gaining some knowledge of the same. After the completion of the
Commentaries on Subtlety, he published as a kind of appendix to these that
most learned work the _De Rerum Varietate_. And in this case, before news
was brought to me of his death, I followed my customary practice, and in
the course of three days compiled an Excursus in short chapters. When I
heard that he was dead I brought them together into one little book, in
order that I also might lend a hand in this great work of his, and this
thing I did after a fashion which he himself would have approved,
supposing that at some time or other he might have held discourse with me,
or with some other yet more learned man, concerning his affairs."[170]

It is a matter of regret that this cry of _peccavi_ was not published till
all the chief literary contemporaries of Scaliger were in their graves. As
it did not appear till 1621, the men of his own time were not able to
enjoy the shout of laughter over his discomfiture which would surely have
gone up from Paris and Strasburg and Basel and Zurich. Estienne and
Gessner would hardly have felt acute sorrow at a flout put upon Julius
Caesar Scaliger. Crooked-tempered as he was, Cardan, compared with
Scaliger, was as a rose to a thistle, but there were reasons altogether
unconnected with the personalities of the disputants which swayed the
balance to Cardan's advantage. The greater part of Scaliger's criticism
was worthless, and the opinion of learned Europe weighed overwhelmingly on
Cardan's side. Thuanus,[171] who assuredly did not love him, and Naude,
who positively disliked him, subsequently gave testimony in his favour. He
did not follow the example of Erasmus, and let Scaliger's abuse go by in
silence, but he took the next wisest course. He published a short and
dignified reply, _Actio prima in Calumniatorem_, in which, from
title-page to colophon, Scaliger's name never once occurs. The gist of
the book may best be understood by quoting an extract from the criticism
of Cardan by Naude prefixed to the _De Vita Propria_. He writes: "This
proposition of mine will best be comprehended by the man who shall set to
work to compare Cardan with Julius Caesar Scaliger, his rival, and a man
endowed with an intellect almost superhuman. For Scaliger, although he
came upon the stage with greater pomp and display, and brought with him a
mind filled with daring speculation, and adequate to the highest fli