A DREADFUL SMELL. 155 



Tonsa, that as he went out of his door one evening, 

 after supper, he perceived a smell as of extinguished 

 tapers. He called out his household, and the smell was 

 recognised by all except his mother, whose nose was dis- 

 abled by a cold, and it was thought by all that such 

 a smell must certainly be ominous of something. That 

 night the physician was continually disturbed by a 

 strange sound as of sows and geese outside. When 

 morning came, Cardan went out to wander in the fields, 

 very solicitous about these omens. On his return he was 

 hurried off to see a neighbour a man of no very good 

 character, reputed to have been a ' thief in the office he 

 had once held as prefect of the plague who had been 

 struck by lightning. He proved to be dead, and so the 

 meaning of the presages became quite clear to the philo- 

 sopher. " After my neighbour's death," he says, " my 

 mind was easy." 



Work of the pen in the mean time went on. Seized by 

 a bold idea, Jerome brought his astrology to bear on the 

 Nativity of Our Lord, and began a Life of Christ con- 

 firmatory of his horoscope 1 . He wrote also three medical 



muneri vacaret, quod pestilentia saeviret, multa rapuisse: concubinam 

 habebat, nee exomologesim subibat : forsan et alia pejora admiserat : 

 erat autem vicinus, ut non intercederet nisi domuncula, vidi et cognovi 

 esse mortuum prorsus, tune liberatus sum a cura, illius obitm" 



1 " Succedente anno" (f. e. 1539) " tres libros de Christi vita super- 

 auxi. qui jam an tea per triennium erant inchoati." De Sapientia, &e. 

 ad fin. The first book treated of bis Birth, the second of his Life, the 

 third of his Laws. ^T, 



. 



