142 JEROME CARDAN. 



that all things might be done according to one man's 

 decision, and at the command of him who was most 

 hostile to the king, I, proving a better prophet through 

 my mother wit than through my knowledge of this 

 science of astrology, at once departed, for I saw the omens 

 of a great calamity and was alarmed." 



The failure of the astrologer could scarcely have been 

 owned more frankly. The method of accounting for the 

 failure was in no respect evasive. According to the 

 science of astrology, as taught by Ptolemy and by Cardan, 

 it never is enough, for perfect accuracy, to predict a whole 

 life from a single horoscope. The nativity of a man's 

 wife, for example, and the nativities of each one of his 

 children, together with many other aspects and conjunc- 

 tions, have the most direct influence in modifying and 

 sometimes completely altering his fortunes. As one per- 

 son's life upon earth influences the life of another, so one 

 person's stars influence the stars of another, and the calcu- 

 lations necessary for an accurate prediction thus become 

 extremely complex, and may well cost the labourer a 

 hundred hours of work. A good astrologer, says Jerome, 

 ought to be another Argus. 



In that book on the Variety of Things, which Edward's 

 death prevented his design of dedicating to him, Cardan 

 spoke again of the young king, who had won so largely 

 upon his esteem.: " If Edward VI., that boy of wondrous 



