190 JEROME CAKDAN. 



and whether writing in the vein of the old Roman Forum, 

 or the modern Roman Church, always enforcing the 

 opinion, common equally to philosophic heathens and to 

 Christians, that happiness and peace lie not in the world 

 without but in the mind within, and that content is only 

 possible to virtue. This work Jerome dedicates to no one 

 person, because no man would wish it to be published 

 that he is in need of consolation 1 . " It seems," he says 

 very shrewdly, " to be in the grain of men to think them- 

 selves more miserable, and to wish to be thought happier 

 by others than they really are." 



The gain made by the Scoti on the publication of the 

 " Bad Practice of Healing," was neutralised by loss upon 

 this second undertaking 3 . The title of the book, Cardan 

 thinks, was not liked, nor, perhaps, was the style attrac- 

 tive ; and again, the volume was disfigured by the printer 

 with a great number of the vilest blunders. So far as tem- 

 porary popularity was concerned, the book was very na- 

 turally less successful than its predecessor. One touched on 



1 Namque illud natura omnibus insitum mortalibus videtur, ut se 

 miseriores quam sint existiment, faeliciores vero videri cupiant," Op. 

 cit. p. 2. 



2 After its publication, he writes that Ottaviano held his books in 

 dread: "Neque enim, ut dixi, Octavianus sponte libros meos, neque 

 libenter imprimebat, jacturam veritus impensse: nam tametsi lucrum 

 fecisset in librorum de Malo Medendi Usu impressione, id tamen in 

 libris de Consolatione postea compensavit: non solum quod titulus et 

 forsan etiam stylus non arrideret, sed quod Typographus ipse innu- 

 meros atque turpissimos errores imprimendo commisisset." De Lib. 

 Prop. (1557) p. 40. 



