1 84 JEROME CARDAN 



still remained of my patrimony, for at my advanced age 

 I could not hope to find fresh employment. Therefore 

 I besought God that He would send me death, which is 

 the lot of all men. I went to bed : it was already late, 

 and, as I must needs rise at four in the morning, I should 

 not have more than two hours' rest. Sleep, however, fell 

 upon me at once, and meseemed that I heard a voice 

 speaking to me out of the darkness. I could discern 

 naught, so it was impossible to say what voice it was, 

 or who was the speaker. It said, ' What would you 

 have ? ' or ' What are you grieving over ? ' and added, 

 ' Is it that you mourn for your son's death ? ' I replied, 

 ' Can you doubt this ? ' Then the voice answered, 

 ' Take the stone which is hanging round your neck 

 and place it to your mouth, and so long as you hold 

 it there you will not be troubled with thoughts of 

 your son.' Here I awoke, and at once asked myself 

 what this beryl stone could have to do with sleep, but 

 after a little, when I found no other means of escape 

 from my trouble, I called to mind the words spoken of 

 a certain man : ' He hoped even beyond hope, and it 

 was accounted to him as righteousness ' (spoken of 

 Abraham), and put the stone in my mouth, whereupon 

 a thing beyond belief came to pass. In a moment all 

 remembrance of my son faded from my mind, and the 

 same thing happened when I fell asleep a second time 

 after being aroused." 1 



The record of Cardan's life for the next two years is 

 a meagre one. His rest was constantly disturbed either 

 by the machinations of his foes or by the dread thereof, 

 the evil last-named being probably the more noxious of 

 the two. As long ago as 1557 he had begun the treatise 

 De Utilitate ex Adversis Capienda, a work giving evidence 

 1 De Vita Propria, ch. xliii. p. 160. 



