152 JEROME CARDAN 



tenacity for steadfastness. No man can be pronounced 

 guilty of offence on the score of some hasty word or 

 other which may escape his lips ; such a charge should 

 rather be made when he defends himself by unworthy 

 methods. Therefore if Cardan during his life, being 

 well advised in the matter, should have kept silent over 

 my attempts to correct him, what could have brought 

 me greater credit than this ? He would have bowed to 

 my opinion in seemly fashion, and would have taken 

 my censures as those of a father or a preceptor. But 

 supposing that he had ventured to engage in a sharper 

 controversy with me over this question, is there any one 

 living who would fail to see that he might have gone 

 near to lose his wits on account of the mental agitation 

 which had afflicted him in the past ? But as soon as 

 his superhuman intellect had thoroughly grasped the 

 question, it seemed to him that he must needs be called 

 upon to bear what was intolerable. He could not pluck 

 up courage enough to bear it by living, so he bore it by 

 dying. Moreover, what he might well have borne, he 

 could not bring himself to bear, to wit that he and I 

 should come to an agreement and should formulate 

 certain well-balanced decisions for the common good. 

 For this reason I lament deeply my share in this affair, 

 I who had most obvious reasons for engaging in this 

 conflict, and the clearest ones for inventing a story as 

 to the victory I hoped to gain ; reasons which a man 

 of sober temper could never anticipate, which a brave 

 man would never desire. 



" Cardan's fame has its surest foundation in the praise 

 of his adversaries. I lament greatly this misfortune of our 

 republic : the causes of which the parliament of lettered 

 men may estimate by its particular rules, but it cannot 

 rate this calamity in relation to the excellences of this 



