PETRARCH THE AUTHOR 



Naples sitting and watching by his sick son's bedside, 

 not merely as a father but as a doctor, for he was an 

 excellent physician. " When the son died, he alone in 

 the midst of universal grief was steadfast, shed no tear, 

 and went about his work." Petrarch speaks about 

 earthquakes which shook all Italy and part of Germany, 

 so that many thought the world was coming to an end. 

 " I happened to be in Verona, seated alone in my 

 Hbrary, and, taken by surprise, feehng the earth tremble 

 under my feet and seeing the books about me fall down 

 one upon the other, I hurried out of the room stunned, 

 and saw first my servants, and then many people, 

 fleeing, pale as death." Last of all, here is something 

 about vegetable influences with which medical science 

 is concerning itself to-day. " I knew once a cardinal of 

 the Roman church, respected for his years and wisdom, 

 who had such a horror of peaches that he turned pale 

 at the mere sight of them and was bathed in cold 

 sweat. Wherefore his attendants took care that he 

 should not see them. There was another, living in the 

 palace of Pope Clement VI, who, when one of his 

 youthful colleagues showed him a rose, took to flight, 

 and, the other following him, ran from room to room 

 through the vast apartments; and if anyone had tried 

 to stop him, he would have jumped out of the windows 

 at the peril of his Hfe, to avoid the odor of the detested 

 flower." 



