AUTHORSHIP. 91 



of chrysalis, its head and feet and front wings working 

 out towards free space and upper air, but all the rest 

 bound by some morbid adhesion to its dusky shell. 



The publications issued by a scholar form, of course, 

 so many chapters in his life, but anything like a full 

 discussion of the writings of Cardan, which, in the col- 

 lected edition, fill ten densely printed folios with matter 

 that is almost everywhere curious and interesting, would 

 occupy more space than could be allowed to it in this 

 biography. I shall condense, therefore, into the present 

 chapter what I wish to say about his early works, in- 

 cluding everything written previous to his marriage. 

 Up to that time nothing had been printed. In speaking 

 of these, and afterwards in speaking of maturer, better 

 works, I shall endeavour to dwell only upon those points 

 which elucidate his character, or stand out as facts that 

 belong fairly to the story of his life. Since the great 

 triumphs of Jerome's genius were not achieved in boy- 

 hood or in youth, it is not necessary to say very much 

 about those first fruits of his intellect to which this 

 chapter is devoted. 



They have been named already. The treatises, written 

 almost in boyhood, on the Earning of Immortality, and 

 upon the True Distances of Objects, do not remain 

 to us. Cardan himself tells us " they were juvenile 

 attempts, and rather signs of disposition than the fruits 



