MYSTERIES. 119 



High? Or did the spirit come for reasons known best to 

 itself? Again, why were its warnings so obscure why, 

 for example, did it sometimes become manifest by noises 

 that he was unable to interpret? He could not answer 

 these questions, but he believed that the spiritual commu- 

 nications were made wisely, and lost significance by 

 passing through the dull wall of the flesh into a mind not 

 always fitted to receive them 1 . 



After his twenty-sixth year, Cardan was often troubled 

 by a complaint, common to most men of his organisation, 

 a frequent ringing in the ears. He received this as a 

 supernatural endowment 2 . By the ear in which the 

 sound appeared to be, and by the manner of the sounding, 

 he knew, he said, in what direction and in what way men 

 were talking of him. He believed also that his presence 

 acted as a preventive of all wounds, and that no blood 

 could flow from wounds inflicted in his presence 3 . The 

 former opinion he may have justified by the fact, that in 

 those days of violence he had escaped the sight of blood- 

 shed in the streets; the latter belief he founded on a 

 single circumstance. Since he himself, professionally, 

 opened veins, it was his further belief that in such 

 instances the flow of blood was owing to a special dis- 

 pensation. Cardan embraced and amplified the whole 



1 De Vita Propria, cap. xlvii. pp. 264, 265. 



2 Ibid. pp. 178, 179. 3 Ibid. p. 163, 



