20 JEROME CARDAN 



my portrait, to affirm that they could find no special 

 characteristic which they could use for the rendering of 

 my likeness, so that I might be known by the same." 1 



After giving this account of his person, Cardan writes 

 down a catalogue of the various diseases which vexed 

 him from time to time, a chapter of autobiography which 

 looks like a transcript from a dictionary of Nosology. 

 More interesting is the sketch which he makes of his 

 mental state during these early years. Boys brought 

 up in company of their elders often show a tendency 

 to introspection, and fall into a dreamy whimsical mood, 

 and his case is a striking example. " By the command 

 of my father I used to lie abed until nine o'clock, 2 and, 

 if perchance I lay awake any time before the wonted 

 hour of rising, it was my habit to spend the same by 

 conjuring up to sight all sorts of pleasant visions, nor 

 can I remember that I ever summoned these in vain. I 

 used to behold figures of divers kinds like airy bodies. 

 Meseemed they were made up of tiny rings, like those 

 in coats of chain-armour, though at this time I had 

 seen nought of the kind. They would rise at the bottom 

 of the bed, from the right-hand corner ; and, moving in 

 a semi-circle, would pass slowly on and disappear in the 

 left. Moreover I beheld the shapes of castles and 

 houses, of horses and riders, of plants, trees, musical 

 instruments, theatres, dresses of men of all sorts, and 

 flute-players who seemed to be playing upon their 

 instruments, but neither voice nor sound was heard 

 therefrom. And besides these things I beheld soldiers, 

 and crowds of men, and fields, and certain bodily forms, 

 which seem hateful to me even now : groves and forests, 



1 De Vita Propria, ch. v. p. 18. 



2 The time covered by this experience was from his fourth to his 

 seventh year. 



