80 JEROME CARDAN. 



for a long time to consider that the life of Cardan was 

 already near its close. He was thus seriously ill for seven 

 months, wanting necessaries. Nevertheless, by the inter- 

 cession, he tells us, of the Blessed Virgin perhaps 

 through abstinence from medicine, for he took none ; per- 

 haps, he hints, because he was reserved for better things 

 Jerome recovered. There were many years to come 

 through which a busy philosophic mind had work to do 

 in the unwholesome chamber of his body. The spirit 

 would have been more healthy had it dwelt in wholesome 

 flesh. In more than one place we are told by Cardan that 

 his mind suffered at times pain so intense that he was glad 

 to relieve it by applying counter-irritation to his body. 

 He would beat his thighs with a switch, bite his left arm, 

 pinch tender bits of skin, would fast, and endeavour by 

 such means to produce a flow of tears, for he was relieved 

 greatly by weeping, but was frequently unable to obtain 

 for himself that method of relief 1 . 



The appearance of Cardan in his manhood well ac- 

 corded with the temper of his mind 2 . He had thin arms 

 and unequal hands, the left hand being elegantly formed 

 with shapely nails, the right hand clumsy and ill-shapeii. 

 His forehead was broad, and there was little hair upon the 

 temples; in later and graver years he wore a skull-cap on 



1 De Vita Propr. cap. vi. p. 30; cap. xiv. pp. 65, 66. 



2 Ibid. cap. v. p. 24; cap. xxi. pp. 84, 85, for the next statements. 



