246 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



phenomenal. From the half-starved, unpaid, flouted stu- 

 dent barely able to keep body and soul together, his ad- 

 vice, in less than ten years, was sought by the Emperor 

 himself, by the King of France for the Queen of Scotland, 

 and by the majesty of England, then embodied in the weak- 

 ling son of Henry VIII. He journeyed in state throughout 

 Europe men of rank and learning everywhere eager to 

 obtain his aid or recognition. And finally, after his 

 travels, he returned to Milan, loaded with honors and re- 

 wards, the undisputed greatest living authority in the 

 healing art. 



The temptation to dwell upon the dramatic episodes of 

 Cardan's later life ending, as it did, in crushing sorrow 

 is strong, but must be resisted, to proceed at once to the 

 remarkable work which will always hold a prominent 

 place in the history of electricity: for in it, for the first 

 time, the phenomena of the amber are clearly differenti- 

 ated from those of the magnet. 



Cardan's Books on Subtilty occupied, in the writing, 

 three years, and were published at Nuremberg and Paris 

 in 1 55 1. 1 The work attained an enormous popularity, and 

 well it might for it was calculated to arouse the keenest 

 curiosity, in that it related to "subtle" things or those 

 which are "sensible by the senses or intelligible by the 

 intellect, but with difficulty comprehended." It is hardly 

 possible to figure to one's self a book nowadays claiming 

 to be a treatise on everything not easily understood; but, 

 at that time, such a work was a welcome improvement 

 upon and a distinct advance beyond the old De Natura 

 Rerum treatises, whereof I have noted numerous exam- 

 ples, and which generally undertook to explain not only 

 "things with difficulty comprehended," but, with equal 

 ease and readiness, things not comprehended at all. It is 

 a curious medley, discussing abstruse mathematics and 



. Cardani, Medici Mediol: De Subtilitate, Lib. xxi. Paris, 1551. 

 There have been numerous later editions. The first French translation 

 is dated 1556, and this I have used. 



