AN EVIL DREAM. 49 



shades, and he entreated, therefore, of Clara, whom he 

 thought to be alive, that she would hold him by the hand'. 

 She did not. Then he turned to Lucia and besought her 

 not to touch the child. She bade him be of good cheer. 

 At last they departed, and the boy was forced away from 

 his father by one of the women over a small bridge. 



Two or three facts may be here set down out of a large 

 mass of detail concerning household economy 1 contained 

 in Cardan's works. He gives minute directions for the 

 management of servants. Boys who are to be preferred 

 may be corrected by the stick, but when they have grown 

 up, they must not be struck or treated as if they were 

 slaves. A man's nurse is to be regarded with as much re- 

 spect as a superior. A bad servant may be at once known 

 by his carrying of fire. There is nothing needing so much 

 care in a household as fire, nothing that will grow so im- 

 moderately when it is not wanted, or fall into ashes so 

 perversely when it is required. A servant who carries it 

 behind him is to be dismissed at once. If he hold it at 

 his side, occasionally looking at it as he goes, he is to be 

 regarded with distrust. The good servant carries fire in 

 a straight line before him. Great watch is to be kept over 



1 These domestic details are chiefly taken from chapters xxxviii. 

 and xxxix. of Proxenata (pp. 155 199), entitled respectively, Res 

 Domesticaet ejus Conservatio: GEconomica distributio et Praecepta, 

 A few facts among them are extracted from the fourth book De Ut. 

 ex Ady. Cap. 



VOL. II. E 



