THE KING OF DENMARK'S OFFER TO CARDAN. 13 



The offer of the King of Denmark was made through 

 his ambassador in the first instance to Vesalius, a phy- 

 sician, who was at the same time eminent and bold. He 

 was habitually acting in defiance of Church bigotry, and 

 was therefore perhaps not likely to object on theological 

 grounds to a royal patient. Vesalius, however, had a 

 different career before him. He already possessed good 

 private means, had several lucrative professorships, and a 

 large practice; his father also was apothecary to the 

 emperor, and held out to him just expectations of ad- 

 vancement at Madrid. He therefore, of course, declined 

 the King of Denmark's offers. Being requested then to 

 name some other illustrious physician whom he would 

 advise the ambassador to seek on the part of his master, he 

 named Jerome Cardan. 



The ambassador went therefore to Cardan, whom it had 

 taken fifteen years in the beginning of his career to ac- 

 quire the art of hoping for nothing, and upon whom 

 society had then at last begun to shower its pecuniary 

 blessings. He had achieved at last his conquest of the 

 world ; that done, he had only to receive homage and 

 collect his tribute. On the part of the King of Denmark, 

 there was offered to the prospering philosopher a yearly 

 stipend of three hundred and six Hungarian gold crowns, 

 in plain cash, and a share in the revenue accruing from 

 a tax on furs, which would probably be less punctually 



