176 JEROME CARDAN. 



as the universal language of the learned. It was also too 

 cumbrous to suit itself to modern idioms of thought. 

 Scaliger raised the cry of Cicero for ever, and asserted 

 that the language, as used by that orator, sufficed for 

 every purpose, and should to the end of time never be 

 departed from by any scholar who had proper principles 

 of taste. The attack upon Erasmus was quite unpro- 

 voked, wrong in the matter, and rude in the manner; 

 but as it was Scaliger against Erasmus, the two names 

 were placed in opposition as the names of rivals. On 

 the same principle, after some years of warfare against 

 men of lower mark, Scaliger aspired next to be talked of 

 as the rival of Cardan. That physician had been travel- 

 ling through France, and was just then perhaps the most 

 renowned and popular of all contemporary philosophers. 

 His books on Subtilty were being talked of by all learned 

 men. Was there a better thing that Scaliger could do 

 than fight Cardan in presence of the world of letters, and 

 make him confess in his throat the books on Subtilty to 

 be all nonsense ? 



He therefore addressed Fifteen Books of Esoteric 

 Exercitations upon Subtilty to Hieronymus Cardanus 1 , 

 which were prefaced by an address from Joannes Bergius, 

 physician, to the candid reader. Joannes Bergius ex- 



1 Julii Caesaris Scaligeri Exotericarum Exercitationum Libri xv. de 

 Subtilitate ad Hieronymum Cardanum. Paris, 1554. 



