as a teacher with my mind closely set on the matter in question, and for
this reason I attract a large number of hearers. I manage my affairs
better than heretofore; and, if any man shall compare the book which I
have lately published with those which I wrote some time ago, he will not
fail to perceive how vastly my intellect has gained in richness, in
vivacity, and in purity."

Though the note of sorrow or even of despair is perceptible in these
sentences, there is no sign that the virile and elastic spirit of the
writer is broken. But there are manifest signs of an increasing tendency
towards mental detachment from the world which had used him so ill. With
the happiest of men the almost certain prospect of extinction at the end
of a dozen years usually tends to foster the growth of a conviction that
the world after all is a poor affair, and that to quit it is no great
evil. How strongly therefore must reflections of a kindred nature have
worked upon a man so cruelly tried as Cardan!

FOOTNOTES:

[211] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 462.

[212] "Sed filius minor natu adeo male se gessit, ut malim transire in
nepotem ex primo filio."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxvi. p. 112.

[213] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxvii. p. 71.

[214] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xii. p. 40.

[215] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 459.

[216] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xvii. p. 56.

[217] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxiii. p. 104.

[218] This opinion prevailed with men of learning far into the next
century. Sir Thomas Browne writes: "They that doubt of these, do not only
deny them, but spirits; and are obliquely and upon consequence a sect not
of infidels, but atheists."--_Religio Medici, Works_, vol. ii. p. 89.

[219] This was the Cardinal, the nephew of Andrea the great jurist, who
was also a good friend of Cardan.

[220] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 463.

CHAPTER XII

AT the beginning of the year 1565 Cardan had a narrow escape from death by
burning, for his bed from some unknown cause caught fire twice in the same
night while he was asleep. The servant was disturbed by the smoke, and
having aroused his master, told him what was amiss, whereupon Cardan flew
into a violent rage, for he deemed that the youth must be drunk. But he
soon perceived the danger, and then they both set to work to extinguish
the flames. His own description of the occurrence is highly
characteristic. "Having put out the fire, I settled myself again to sleep,
and, while I was dreaming of alarms,