84 JEROME CARDAN. 



sick mind coloured the memory of his dream in later and 

 more miserable years ; the shadow of his future life is 

 therefore thrown over the telling of it. Jerome Cardan 

 dreamed 1 that he was walking in a lovely paradise, fanned 

 by a soft breeze, through scenes such as not Pulci himself 

 could represent by words. It seemed to him, that as he 

 came by the garden porch, he noticed that the gate had 

 been left open. Then looking through the open gateway 

 he saw standing beyond the porch a damsel dressed in 

 white, and he went out to her and put his arms about 

 her neck and kissed her. But after his first kiss there 

 came the gardener, who shut the gate, and would for no 

 persuasion open it again. Then Jerome hung upon the 

 damsel's neck, outside the locked door of his paradise. 



Now it happened that not long after this dream a fire 

 took place in the house of an inhabitant of Sacco, Aldo- 

 bello Bandarini 3 , captain of the Venetian levies in the 

 district of Padua. Cardan, who scarcely knew this man 

 by sight, felt somewhat annoyed when, after he had been 

 burnt out of his own home, he established himself next 

 door to the philosopher, and vexed him with the constant 

 passing to and fro of a rough set of visitors. Aldobello 

 was a man who had created friends and fortune for him- 

 self in a shrewd, genial way. Jerome was learning to en- 



1 De Vita Prop. cap. xxvi. pp. 96, 97.WDe Libr. Propr. Liber ultim. 

 Opera, Tom. L p. 97. 



2 De Vit. Prop. p. 97. 



