THE ACADEMIC SUPPER. 269 



abided by his intention. An hour afterwards came some 

 one with more urgent entreaty; Jerome replied, that he 

 would not break his vow, that he should not leave the 

 house. The evening was cloudy, and he went to see a 

 poor patient, who was a butcher, because his vow did not 

 hinder the performance of that duty. 



Afterwards dreading some evil, but not knowing what, 

 Cardan thought of his books 1 , in which there were dark 

 passages that rivals might know how to construe to his 

 hurt. He wrote, therefore, to the Council at Rome, 

 subjecting all that he had written to its authority and 

 better judgment. Through that precaution he was really 

 saved afterwards from a position of great danger. Going 

 then to Milan, he was there seized with a fever and 

 weakness of the stomach. While labouring under 

 this illness, a messenger arrived from Pavia, summon- 

 ing him suddenly to his grandson, who was in extreme 

 peril. So he was compelled to ride to Pavia in a 

 chariot, ill as he was, under a burning mid-day sun, and 

 it was that year the hottest summer in his memory. The 

 grandson was cured, but the grandfather added to his 

 other ailments an affection of a front tooth, which was 

 soon followed by erysipelas over the face. He was near 

 dying, and would have caused himself to be bled, if a 



1 Paralipomenon, Lib. iii. cap. vi. from this point to the end of the 

 chapter. 



