1545. 289 



later years, were of a kind calculated to excite men's 

 sympathies, so that the fragments of self-revelation had 

 always a life and charm in them ; they were a pleasant 

 sauce that heightened very much the relish of the reader 

 for the entire book. 



Another source of Cardan's popularity was a deficiency 

 of liveliness in other learned writers. There were many 

 isolated pleasant books, but there was no grave utterer of 

 tome upon tome of Latin who had much more than his 

 wisdom to dispose of. The readers of Cardan were sure 

 to be amused with wit and eccentricity, at the same time 

 that they were impressed with the conviction of his being 

 the most learned man of his own time, for there was no 

 other whose philosophy embraced so wide a range of 

 subjects. In this respect, and in the charm -of nimbleness 

 and suppleness as a writer, his chief rival, Scaliger, was 

 greatly his inferior. 



In the year 1545, then, at which date this narrative 

 now stands, Cardan lectured on medicine in the Univer- 

 sity of Pavia as he had lectured during the previous year, 

 almost to empty benches. The confusion caused by war 

 in the finances of the university did not check very 

 seriously his career, and the position attained by him was 

 at length a safe one. As a physician of much more than 

 common penetration he was widely sought, and as an 

 author, the series of works ending with his real master- 



VOL. I. U 



