52 JEROME CARDAN. 



Until there shall be one trumpet sounded over all the 

 graves, we shall most likely continue to blow trumpets of 

 our own in this way. A clever man must be more pious 

 than clever who omits the temptation, when he has the 

 power, to display his cleverness upon a tomb. By Cardan, 

 who was more clever than pious, no such omission would 

 be made. How should his piety prevail? The holiness 

 of home, all sacredness of motive and true worthiness of 

 action, had been unknown to the little Jerome when he 

 was a child. He had grown up contemned and neglected, 

 seeing much of evil passion, trained as a child in astro- 

 logy, and strengthened in every tendency to superstition. 

 The religion of his time was ceremonial and full of super- 

 stitious practices. Jerome was superstitious. He was 

 careful to perform religious rites ; he prayed to God and 

 to the Virgin Mary, but more particularly to St. Martin, 

 whom he was taught by a dream to regard as a protector 

 under whom he would enjoy a somewhat quieter and 

 longer life 1 than he could have obtained under any other 

 saint. There can be no doubt that this was a direct 

 slight offered to St. Jerome. Cardan was not behind his 

 age, but he was not before it, when, as he tells us, he was 

 accustomed from childhood to look up to heaven with this 

 prayer: " Lord God, of Thine infinite goodness, give me 

 long life and wisdom, and health both of mind and body 2 .'' 

 1 De Vita Propr. cap. xxii. p. 87. 2 Ibid. p. 66. 



