48 JEROME CARDAN 



proved of great service in a subsequent litigation between 

 Jerome and the College of Physicians. 



All his life long Cardan was a dreamer of dreams, and 

 he gives an account of one of his visions in this year, 

 1534, which, whether regarded as an allegory or as a 

 portent, is somewhat remarkable. "In the year 1534, 

 when I was as it were groping in the dark, when I had 

 settled naught as to my future life, and when my case 

 seemed to grow more desperate day by day, I beheld 

 in a dream the figure of myself running towards the 

 base of a mountain which stood upon my right hand, 

 in company with a vast crowd of people of every station 

 and age and sex women, men, old men, boys, infants, 

 poor men and rich men, clad in raiment of every sort. I 

 inquired whither we were all running, whereupon one 

 of the multitude answered that we were all hastening 

 on to death. I was greatly terrified at these words, 

 when I perceived a mountain on my left hand. Then, 

 having turned myself round so that it stood on my right 

 side, I grasped the vines (which, here in the midst of 

 the mountains and as far as the place wherein I stood, 

 were covered with dry leaves, and bare of grapes, as we 

 commonly see them in autumn) and began to ascend. 

 At first I found this difficult, for the reason that the 

 mountain was very steep round the base, but having 

 surmounted this I made my way upward easily. When 

 I had come to the summit it seemed that I was like to 

 pass beyond the dictates of my own will. Steep naked 

 rocks appeared on every side, and I narrowly escaped 

 falling down from a great height into a gloomy chasm. 

 So dreadful is all this that now, what though forty years 

 have rolled away, the memory thereof still saddens and 

 terrifies me. Then, having turned towards the right 

 where I could see naught but a plain covered with 



