292 JEROME CARDAN. 



on high ; Melancthon was an interpreter of dreams ; and 

 Luther, who abounded in many superstitions of his day, 

 had so certain a belief in killcrops, or devil's changelings, 

 that having seen a boy at Dessau whom he took for a 

 changeling, he did not scruple to advise his murder. " I 

 told the Prince of Anhalt, that if I were prince of that 

 country, I would venture homicidium thereon, and would 

 throw it into the river Moldau 1 ." 



The self-revelations of Cardan may furnish us with a 

 more vivid picture of such inconsistencies than could be 

 had from others using the subdued tone common among 

 men in intercourse with one another. I do not, however, 

 think that he was in such matters a greater curiosity than 

 many of the learned men about him. His eccentricity 

 consisted perhaps more in the extent of his candour than 

 in his peculiarities of conduct or opinion. 



It is not, for example, every writer who is ready, to 

 amuse his readers with a chapter upon what he likes to 

 have for breakfast or for supper, and how long he likes 

 to be in bed. When he was old and garrulous, Cardan 

 poured out a rich store of such details, which now serve 

 pleasantly not only in aid of a minute depiction of him- 

 self, but also in illustration of the manners of his time 2 . 



1 For these hints I am indebted to Dugald Stewart's preliminary 

 article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 



2 Authority for all the succeeding details upon food and dress will be 

 found in chaps, vi. viii. and xx, of the book De Vita Propria. 



