REMOVAL TO GALLARATE. 117 



of the month, Jerome settled in Gallarate, by the advice 

 of Giacomo Cardan, his cousin, resident upon the spot, he 

 believed that he had a right there to be honoured, if not 

 for his genius and learning, at least (scrofulous man as he 

 was) for the good composition of his blood. 



Pure air improved the health of the philosopher, and 

 cheapness of provisions may have made it possible, by 

 dinners of herbs, to live for a short time without too 

 bitter a sense of want. They watched the gradual de- 

 parture of the few coins they had mustered when he and 

 Lucia prepared to set out on their venture 1 . Their poverty 

 began to border upon destitution : very few fees came in. 

 Cardan began a treatise upon Fate 1 , in which he showed 

 that events frequently happen contrary to human wishes, 

 and that such disappointments must be borne with equa- 

 nimity. For himself, the knowledge of his strength was 

 in him, and when he sat down at Gallarate to begin this 

 treatise upon Fate though there was no outward circum- 

 stance on which to found a hope that anything proceed- 

 ing from his pen would ever make its way into a print- 

 ing-office his heart leapt out into the opening words 

 concerning " All who hope that, by writing, glory possi- 

 bly may follow to themselves 2 ." At Gallarate he began 

 also for Filippo Archinto, a clever young Milanese patri- 



1 De Libris Propriis (ed. 1557), p. 14. 



2 " Omnes qui scribendo gloriam consequi se posse sperant." 



