CARDAN ON THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 143 



hope, had survived, he would have contributed not a 

 little to the establishment of the whole kingdom. For ? 

 as Plato says, that is a true republic whose kings are 

 philosophers 1 ." 



The stranger, of course, carried away with him from 

 England certain impressions of a people among whom 

 he had for some months been sojourning. " It is. worth 

 consideration," he reported 2 , " that the English care little 

 or not at all for death. With kisses and salutations 

 parents and children part; the dying say that they depart 

 into immortal life, that they shall there await those left 

 behind ; and each exhorts the other to retain him in his 

 memory. Cheerfully, without blenching, without tot- 

 tering, they bear with constancy the final doom. They 

 surely merit pity who with such alacrity meet death, 

 and have no pity on themselves." 



But what do they look like, asks a speaker in the 

 dialogue through which Cardan relates familiarly his 

 impressions; what do they look like, and how do they 

 dress ? 



"In figure," he replies, " they are much like the Ita- 

 lians ; they are white whiter than we are, not so ruddy ; 



1 De Eerum Varietate, p. 285. 



2 The succeeding account of the English people is collected from 

 Cardan's dialogue De Morte, printed at the end of the book Som- 

 morum Synesiorum, pp. 371, et seq. 



