146 JEROME CARDAN 



sooth, I have written of so many things and at such 

 length, that a man could scarcely read my works if he 

 spent his life therewith. I have taken good care of my 

 domestic affairs, and by common consent I have come 

 off victor in every contest I have tried. I have refused 

 always to flatter the great ; and over and beyond this I 

 have often set myself in active opposition to them. My 

 name will be found scattered about the pages of many 

 writers. I shall deem my life long enough if I come in 

 perfect health to the age of fifty-six. I have been most 

 fortunate as the discoverer of many and important con- 

 tributions to knowledge, as well as in the practice of my 

 art and in the results attained ; so much so that if my 

 fame in the first instance has raised up envy against me, 

 it has prevailed finally, and extinguished all ill-feeling." l 

 These words were written before the publication of 

 the Geniturarum Exempla in 1554. Cardan's life for 

 the six years which followed was busy and prosperous, 

 but on the whole uneventful. The Archbishop of St. 

 Andrews wrote to him according to promise at the end 

 of two years to give an account of the results of his 

 treatment. His letter is worthy of remark as showing 

 that he, the person most interested, was well satisfied 

 with Cardan's skill as a physician. Michael, the Arch- 

 bishop's chief chamberlain, was the bearer thereof, and 

 as Hamilton speaks of him as " epistolam vivam," it is 

 probable that he bore likewise certain verbal messages 

 which could be more safely carried thus than in writing. 

 A sentence in the De Vita Propria? mixed up with the 

 account of Hamilton's cure, seems to refer to this 

 embassy, and to suggest that Michael was authorized 

 to promise Cardan a liberal salary if he would accept 



1 Geniturarum Exempla, p. 459. 



2 De Vita Propria, ch. xl. p. 137. 



