286 JEROME CARDAN. 



he says 1 , " I heard much about the manners of the people, 

 and that they were deceitful; but that is not true. It is 

 truer that they are ambitious and effeminate, and easily 

 irritated. When they have begun to quarrel they are 

 not led on by any care for equity or moderation, but they 

 are resolved to win, even though it be against the right ; 

 for when you have offended them, they never stop to 

 reflect whether they first caused the offence, but conceive 

 an undying hate, so that it is doubly difficult to deal with 

 them. Some are magnificent, beneficent, and reasonably 

 civilised and polished. The chief thing, therefore, is to 

 give them soothing words while pertinaciously adhering 

 to your rights, and never slip from your main point. For 

 when they have no right to show in a contest, they use 

 cutting words, and put them in the place of justice. A 

 thing certainly to be found hard, especially by those who 

 are not used to it. Wherefore it is better to dispute with 

 them on paper than by word of mouth, and. through an 

 arbiter than man to man." 



After he had lived four or five years at Bologna, Jerome 

 could, at least while occupied in writing philosophically, 

 believe that his mind was tranquillised. "I am poor," 

 he said 3 , " sick, and old. I am bereaved of my best son, 

 my best hope, the youth most dear to me, by a wrong ; 



1 Proxenata (ed. Elzevir), p. 467. 



2 De Libris Propr. Lib. ult. Opera, Tom. i, p. 136. 



