124 JEROME CARDAN. 



age. That was an establishment whose doors were open 

 to the sick and needy and the houseless stranger, main- 

 tained from religious motives by various communities, in 

 direct obedience to the admonition joined in Scripture to 

 the question of the righteous and unrighteous " Lord, 

 when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee? or thirsty 

 and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and 

 took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?" 



Cardan, however, had an active friend in Milan. The 

 same Filippo Archinto 1 for whom he had been writing his 

 book on the Judgments of the Astronomers, had coun- 

 selled him to come again to Milan, and took pains on his 

 behalf. Filippo, the son of Christopher and Maddalena 

 della Torre, differed in age from Cardan by not more 

 than a year; he was a young man equally agreeable and 

 learned, who, by love of pleasure, had been doubtless 

 brought into contact with Cardan over the dice, and by 

 the instinct of a kindred genius, and by love of learning, 

 had been drawn into a state of intimacy with the poor, 

 maligned philosopher. Archinto, full of kindness, wis- 

 dom, tact, and well born also, already in repute for ora- 

 tory 2 , had the promise of a bright career before him ; and 

 he did afterwards attain, as we shall find, by his own 

 merits, to high distinction. In 1534 his influence sufficed 



1 De Consol. p. 76. 2 De Vita Propria, p. 19. 



