vent Catholic, but in fostering the belief that
he was in sooth under the protection of some guardian spirit like that
which had attended his father and divers of the sages of old. Although he
had in his earlier days treated his father's belief with a certain degree
of respect and credence,[231] there is no evidence that he was possessed
with the notion that any such supernatural guardian attended his own
footsteps at the time when he put together the _De Varietate_; indeed it
would seem that his belief was exactly the opposite. He writes as follows:
"It is first of all necessary to know that there is one God, the Author of
all good, by whose power all things were made, and in whose name all good
things are brought to pass; also, that if a man shall err he need not be
guilty of sin. That there is no other to whom we owe anything or whom we
are bound to worship or serve. If we keep these sayings with a pure mind
we shall be kept pure ourselves and free from sin. What a demon may be I
know not, these beings I neither recognize nor love. I worship one God,
and Him alone I serve. And in truth these things ought not to be published
in the hearing of unlearned folk; for, if once this belief in spirits be
taken up, it may easily come to pass that they who apply themselves to
such arts will attribute God's work to the devil."[232] And in another
place: "I of a truth know of no spirit or genius which attends me; but
should one come to me, after being warned of the same in dreams, if it
should be given to me by God, I will still reverence God alone; to Him
alone will I give thanks, for any benefit which may befall me, as the
bountiful source and principle of all good. And, in sooth, the spirit may
rest untroubled if I repay my debt to our common Master. I know full well
that He has given to me, for my good genius, reason, patience in trouble,
a good disposition, a disregard of money and dignities, which gifts I use
to the full, and deem them better and greater possessions than the Demon
of Socrates."[233]

About the Demon of Socrates Cardan has much to say in the _De Varietate_.
He never even hints a doubt as to the veracity and sincerity of Socrates.
He is quite sure that Socrates was fully persuaded of the reality of his
attendant genius, and favours the view that this belief may have been well
founded. He takes an agnostic position,[234] confining his positive
statement to an assertion of his own inability to realize the presenc