94 JEEOME CARDAN. 



and will give, if there be any arrangement entered into be- 

 tween him and you, the guarantee of P. Francisco Eesta, or 

 any other banker in Milan. 



" This only, finally, I will promise you, best and most learned 

 Cardanus, with a true heart, that you shall incur no waste of 

 time and labour, for there shall accrue to you no moderate 

 increase of means, and the greatest harvest of feme and 

 esteem. I would have you, therefore, to persuade yourself 

 that I both wish and am able to do more things than I 

 promise. Which, without doubt, if you will take upon your- 

 self so much trouble for our sake, you shall in very deed and 

 by experience discover. 



" Farewell, most learned Cardanus, and visit our Lares to 

 find us not so much of Scythians as you perhaps suppose. 

 Edinburgh, Feb. 4, 1552. 



" Upon all matters not mentioned in this letter, confide in 

 William Cassanate, who delivers it." 



A journey into frosty Scotland had by no means formed 

 part of Jerome's plan, and Cassanate used various persua- 

 sions, and held out many attractions, before the philoso- 

 pher could be prevailed upon to go so far from home. 

 He believed that the archbishop had enticed him into 

 France, meaning that he should go to Edinburgh, but well 

 knowing that the proposal of a journey into Scotland 

 would have been refused, if sent to him at Milan 1 . Nei- 



1 Geniturarum Exemplar, p. 129. " Advocabant me in Gallias, 

 credo consulto veriti quod et futurum erat, me nullis conditionibus in 

 Scotiam, si eo me advocassent, deduci posse." The text shows, how- 

 ever, that the account given by historians of Hamilton's affairs fits so 



