188 JEROME CARDAN. 



but that " at the same time he employed remedies accord- 

 ing to his art 1 ." 



The marriage of his eldest son with a girl who was of 

 the worst repute, and who could bring to her husband 

 and to himself, too, if he should harbour her, nothing but 

 disgrace, was the beginning of Cardan's great sorrow. 

 He refused to admit the new wife to his home. Father 

 and son parted in anger; but the physician's heart ached 

 for his foolish boy. Care gathered about him, and the 

 months of separation, during which Gianbatista struggled 

 weakly in a sea of trouble, were not less miserable to 

 the father than to the son. " In one word," he once said 

 of himself, " I embrace all. I have been immoderate in 

 all things that I loved 2 ." For about nine months he 

 maintained the battle with his feelings. During that 

 time a grandchild had been born to him, but its mother 

 was no honest wife; and Gianbatista had found bitter 

 reason to deplore his rashness. Then Jerome heard that 

 his boy was living with Brandonia in destitution, and his 

 heart could bear no more. He therefore wrote to him, 

 and his letter was as follows 3 : 



" As I feel rather pity for your fate, my son, than 

 anger against the offence which you have committed, not 



1 De Vita Propria, cap. xxxvii. 



2 Geniturarum Exemplar, p. 91. 



8 De Libris Propriis. Lib. ult. Op. Tom. i. p. 117. 



