178 JEROME CARDAN. 



he says, " Scaliger was not worthy to come into contest 

 with Cardan; and all the learned, while they acknow- 

 ledge that Cardan erred on many points, at the same time 

 agree that he achieved a perfect victory over his rival 1 ." 

 The tone of Scaliger's book may be shown by the quota- 

 tion of one little exercitation ; it is one of those in which 

 he had the sense on his own side, selected only for its 

 shortness 2 . 



" We confess, too, from this that you are divine. You 

 say that silver has a pleasant, sweetish taste. And that 

 gold has a far better taste, but does not yield it. Are 

 you not clearly divine, who alone know what no man 

 ever knew? For if it is not yielded, it is not perceived. 

 If it does not act, you are not acted upon. If you are 

 not acted upon, you do not perceive. If you do not 

 perceive, you do not know that there is anything per- 

 ceptible. If you do not know, do not enunciate. If 

 you enunciate, the Aristotelians, whom you call too rash, 

 will say you lie." 



Jerome did not trouble himself very much about this 

 onslaught, which was based, Joseph Scaliger says, on the 

 sixth, Cardan himself says on the second 3 , edition of his 



1 Tirabosclii. Storia della Letteratura Italiana (Milan, 1 824), vol. 

 vii. p. 689. 



2 Exotericarum Exercitationum (ed. cit.), p. 160. 



3 He says that he added his answer to the third. Scaliger may have 

 replied, however, to the sixth impression, as there were piratical 

 issues in some towns which Cardan would not reckon with his own. 



