EVIL OMENS. 83 



liis duty to observe everything, and suppose nothing to 

 have been fortuitously made by nature " by which 

 means," he hints, and we can readily believe, " I have be- 

 come richer in knowledge than in money." 



Recovered from his wasting illness, writing, trifling, 

 and enjoying again his position in the little town of Sacco, 

 when he had completed his thirtieth year, towards the 

 end of the year 153 1 1 , the young physician married. Be- 

 fore the event, he tells us 2 , looking back to it from a later 

 date, and colouring his narrative with superstition, before 

 the event a quiet dog howled with unusual pertinacity ; 

 ravens sat upon the house-top and croaked more than they 

 were wont; bundles of sticks broken by a boy emitted 

 sparks of fire. 



At that time Cardan, newly and suddenly 3 relieved 

 from the sense of incompetence to marry by which he 

 had for ten years considered himself doomed to remain 

 single, dreamed of a lovely maiden dressed in white. His 



1 De Vit. Propr. p. 19. 



2 De Vit. Propr. cap. xli. pp. 209, 210: " Cum anno MDXXXI. canis 

 modesta ulularet praeter consuetudinem assidue : corvi insiderent 

 domus vertici crocitantes praeter solitum, puer cum fascicules lignorum 

 frangeret, erumpebant ignis scintillae, duxi uxorem inexpectato." 



3 " Minim dictu," he says (de Lib. Prop. Lib. ult.) " ut flatim e galli 

 naceo factus sim gallus, et ex 6Xa<ria KTJ\(OV" All this part of Car- 

 dan's experience is the theme of a distinct chapter of the second book 

 De Ut. ex Adv. Cap. beginning at p. 280 of the edition before cited. 



In it he relates with surprising candour various facts belonging to his 

 student life, especially to the year of his rectorship. 



G2 



