58 JEROME CARDAN. 



but also often reading it, and seeing it in dreams by night. 

 He saw in dreams its title, the number of the books, and 

 the order of their contents. He dreamt that it was 

 printed, and that there were two or three copies in town 

 an admirable work, larger than his own, and by another 

 author. When it really was first printed at Nuremberg 

 he never dreamt of it again. The treatise on Subtilty 

 was followed up in the same vein by another upon the 

 Variety of Things 1 . Dreams had stimulated him to the 

 production of that treatise also. The object of both was 

 the same, and the two together very "perfectly fulfilled his 

 purpose, which was to take a comprehensive and philo- 

 sophical survey of nature according, of course, to the 

 philosophy of his own century; to point out, as well as 

 he could, the subtle truths which underlie the wonderful 

 variety of things which fill the universe ; to describe the 

 circle of the sciences, and (expressing each by those of its 

 facts which were most difficult of comprehension) to 

 apply his wit, or his acquired knowledge as a philosopher, 

 to the elucidation of them. With these works Jerome 

 took great pains; that on the Variety of Things cost him 

 more trouble than anything he ever undertook. It was 

 repeatedly rewritten and remodelled, and many parts of it 

 were transferred into the books on Subtilty. The books 



1 " De Varietate Berum, eorumque Usn." It was published five or 

 six years later. 



