310 JEROME CARDAN. 



number of extremely curious coincidences upon which to 

 feed his faith. Of this fact we will select as a final 

 illustration the story of a morning spent by Cardan at 

 Rome 1 only six months before he died, he being then 

 seventy-five years old. It seemed to him so wonderful, that 

 when he went home he set it down at length in his book 

 "Upon his own Life;" an elaborate thesis on his own 

 career and character, which he had just time to complete 

 before he died: On the morning of the 26th of April, 

 1576, he mounted his carriage for he used it at Rome 

 as at Bologna to go into the forum. On the way he got 

 out, because he wished to dive into a narrow court that 

 led to the house of a dealer in gems, with whom he had 

 business. As he left the carriage, he bade the driver, 

 who, he says, was a torpid fellow, go and wait for him at 

 the Campo Altovitaro. He answered " Yes," but mis- 

 understood the direction, and the old man, when he him- 

 self went to the place appointed, found no carriage. He 

 was loaded with bags which he had brought from the 

 jeweller's, considering that he should not have far to 

 carry them. With these in his hand he walked towards the 

 residence of the governor of the castle, to the vicinity of 

 which he thought it likely that his driver had gone by 

 mistake. On the road he met an old friend, Vincenzio, 

 of Bologna, a musician, who was surprised to see the feeble 



1 De Vita Propria, cap. xlix. 



