RECTOR. 63 



year when he was rector as a year of " Sardanapalan life," 

 a blot upon his past for which he had to make atone- 

 ment 1 . And who found the money to support him in his 

 false position who paid for the mock-majesty of Rector 

 Sardanapalus ? The widow at Milan. His mother we 

 do not know how worked for him, and by her self- 

 denial and solicitude he was enabled 2 to sustain the charges 

 that he had so foolishly and recklessly incurred. Perhaps 

 she was proud of his distinction, unsubstantial as it was, 

 but proud or not, she was his mother. Except his 

 mother's help, he had no means of income but the gaming- 

 table 3 . 



Cardan had not at the university a large circle of 

 friends. Except when he sought wild pleasure in a game 

 of chance, or men with whom to sing, he was, in his 

 studies and his recreations, almost a recluse; he thought 

 that few who might be his companions were virtuous, 

 none truly learned, and with a false cynicism he regarded 

 social intercourse as waste of time. Yet he had formed 

 in his youth a friendship, based upon community of tastes 



In chapter xiii. p. 59 of the De Vita Propr. Liber, he speaks of 

 ance due " ut vita Sardanapalece quam anno quo praefui Gymnasio 

 tavino egi, flagitia purgaverim." 



2 " Matris tamen sollicitudine effectum est, ut pondus impensarum, 

 quamvis segre, sustinuerim." De Ut. ex Adv. Cap. p. 430. 



3 " Studentium Rector creatus, nihil prius cum haberem, totum tamen 

 illud nihil consumpsi. Nee ullum mihi erat reliquum auxilium, nisi 

 latrunculorum ludus." De ConsoL p. 75. 



