136 JEROME CARDAN. 



dreamed that he was alone in the moon, naked, and dis- 

 embodied. There, in his solitude, he heard only the voice 

 of his father, and it said to him, " I am given to you by 

 God as a guardian. All here is full of souls, but you do 

 not see them, as you do not see me ; nor do you hear 

 them, for to the others it is not permitted to address yon. 

 You will remain in this heaven for seven thousand years, 

 and as many years in single orbs, until the eighth. 

 Afterwards you shall come into the kingdom of God." 



So worked the restless brain of the young student when 

 he and Lucia had gone to rest, she thinking of the next 

 day and its cares, he of the next age and its glories. This 

 dream of the moon had its own suitable interpretation. 

 His father, Cardan said, was his tutelary spirit. His 

 spiritual progress through eight planets, indicated, t as he 

 said afterwards, with remarkable accuracy, the different 

 studies upon which he was to occupy his mind. The 

 Moon meant grammar ; Mercury, geometry and arith- 

 metic; Venus, music, divination, poetry; the Sun, morals; 

 Jupiter, nature ; Mars, medicine ; Saturn, agriculture, 

 knowledge of herbs, &c. There were seven planets indi- 

 cating studies to which he did really afterwards devote his 

 mind, and the eighth planet held the scraps of know- 

 ledge that could be referred to none among the seven. 

 Gleanings which the student picked up in such fields of 

 science as he did not himself undertake to cultivate, 



