FAME ACQUIRED. 285 



used no worldly tact. His first published book would 

 have been the last book issued by a prudent man, for it 

 put new determination into the antagonism of his oppo- 

 nents. Nevertheless, he had steadily continued at his 

 work, using a strong mind not as a toy but as a tool, and 

 the result ensued which sooner or later must, in such case, 

 always ensue. Man has but to will and work. The 

 objects of a high ambition are not instantly secured. 

 Cardan had not enough tact to create for himself popu- 

 larity, but he had talent enough to create for himself 

 fame. To create it for himself, laboriously, by endurance 

 and exertion, because no man who moves at a lounging 

 pace is likely to outmarch his neighbours. Jerome had 

 forced his way up through years of discouragement, 

 against contempt and poverty, in spite of severe bodily 

 infirmities, and at the age of forty-four he was at length 

 a recognised physician, occupying a professor's chair, and 

 renowned through Europe as a man of letters. It should 

 be remembered, however, that he had based his reputa- 

 tion on the writing of more works than there were years 

 in his life, and that of those works none had been pub- 

 lished until they had been reconsidered, polished, and 

 rewritten more than once, commonly twice, but among 

 his publications there are many passages that had been 

 written five and even ten times by his pen before they were 

 committed to the printer's types. The whole writings of 



