156 JEROME CARDAN. 



but he was the same man still; he had not changed his 

 manner with his fortunes. 



After his return from Scotland, Cardan occupied him- 

 self upon the emendation of his Books of Subtilty, and 

 in the further preparation of his work on the Variety of 

 Things. The extent of his practice interfered with his 

 desk labour. In the year following 1 , however, he wrote 

 two books, containing nearly three hundred fables, de- 

 signed for the pleasure of children and the use of men. 

 These fables have, unhappily, remained unpublished. 

 They would have formed an interesting portion of his 

 works. We have to regret also that the familiar letters 

 which he arranged for publication have escaped the press. 

 In 1554 he wrote little or nothing ; he was prosperous 

 in his profession; indeed, he says, overpaid. Every year 

 works of his were being printed or reprinted in one or 

 other of the literary towns of Europe. In 1555 his com- 

 mentaries upon Ptolemy, written on the Loire, with 

 twelve horoscopes appended, in a separate work published 

 at the same time in the same form, appeared at Lyons. 

 Therein, speaking of himself, he wrote : " What I have 

 not, I might have had; what I have has been not only 

 spontaneously offered, but in a manner thrust upon me, 



1 The account of these books, written between 1552 and 1557, is 

 from the end of the Liber de Libris Propriis, published in the latter 

 year. 



