92 JEROME CARDAN. 



Scotland. Cassanate was the bearer of three hundred 

 crowns, payable to him for his travelling expenses between 

 Lyons and Edinburgh, if he could be prevailed upon so 

 far to extend his journey. Thus Hamilton wrote 1 : an 

 oscillation in his style, between the familiar first person 

 singular and the formal first person plural, has been left 

 unaltered. The tone of the letter shows that the arch- 

 bishop was a man of business : 



" Tour letter, written on the 23rd of November, was 

 received three days ago by our physician, and read through 

 by me. Inasmuch as you have therein, most learned Car- 

 danus, equalled our opinion of your singularly recondite 

 erudition and perfect virtue, you have also increased our 

 expectation that the restoration of our health will proceed 

 chiefly and certainly from you. Urged to that opinion 

 already by the persuasions of our physician, I had thought 

 that I must have recourse to you as to the ^Esculapius most 

 propitious and suitable for the quelling of my disease ; not 

 that I distrusted the help I received from the learned 

 doctors, but that from your aid I promised to myself more. 

 But though I myself, some months ago as you have been 

 very abundantly informed in the letter of our physician had 

 determined for that special reason to go to Paris, neverthe- 

 less, hindered by most serious and urgent and inevitable 

 business, I was compelled to desist from my intention. 



" Wherefore, because I wish to adopt the next best course, 

 I have conceived the desire to send to you the man who is 



1 This letter is given by Cardan in his second book De Libris 

 Propriis (ed. 1557). 



