148 JEROME CARDAN. 



a good family 1 . The boy's father may, perhaps, have 

 thought that here was a fine opportunity for getting his 

 son out into the world. " The fates," says Cardan, 

 " thrust him upon me. Neither I nor his friends took 

 time to remember that the boy could not speak either 

 Italian or Latin : if I had thought of that, which was the 

 Deginning of all his misfortunes, I should scarcely have 

 taken him away. But next morning, when there had 

 passed only some words on the preceding evening, the 

 father brought him down in haste, the ship then being in 

 a hurry to depart through fear of pirates. The poor boy 

 fell down upon the shore, so that he could scarcely rise 

 again even when helped; and when I was told of that 

 omen I almost refused to take him." Nevertheless, seeing 

 with how much alacrity the boy was pressed into his 

 service, Cardan says that he did not like to send him 

 back. William himself was far from manifesting any 

 reluctance to leave home. Hastily, therefore, it \vas 

 decided that he should be taken, and the philosopher, 

 taxed with a new responsibility, set sail across the narrow 

 Channel for Cape Grisnez, meaning, when he reached 

 land, to turn aside directly into Belgium. 



1 The surname of this family is called in the last book De Libris 

 Propriis, Lataneus; in the preface to De Morte, Cataneus ; one of 

 course being a misprint. It was not, perhaps, of English origin. 

 Cardan says of the father, " erat Ligur." 



