238 JEROME CARDAN 



and made many discoveries ; but he was subject to 

 strange and excessive aberration of mind, and was guilty 

 of the most impudent blasphemy, in that he was minded 

 to subject to the artificial laws of the stars the Ruler of 

 the stars Himself, for this thing he did in the horoscope 

 of our Saviour which he drew." 



Another witness of his life in Rome is Frangois 

 d'Amboise, a young French nobleman, who was engaged 

 on his book De Symbolis Heroicis. He says that he 

 saw Cardan, who was living in a spacious house, on the 

 walls of which, in place of elegant paintings or vari- 

 coloured tapestries, were written the words, " Tempus mea 

 possessio? 



In his later writings there are farther indications that 

 he was wont to conjure up omens and portents chiefly at 

 those times when he was in danger and mental distress. 

 In the case which is given below, the omen showed itself 

 in a season of trouble, but Cardan, in describing it later, 

 treats it as if he were a modern scientist. The distress- 

 ing memories of the imprisonment had faded, and writ- 

 ing in ease and security at Rome he begins to rationalize. 

 In the dialogue between himself and his father, written 

 shortly before his death, Fazio calls his son's attention 

 to certain of the omens and portents already noticed ; 

 and, after discussing these, Jerome goes on to tell for 

 the first time of another boding event which, as he 

 affirms, distressed him even more than the loss of his 

 office and the prohibition to publish his books. On the 

 day of his incarceration, on two different occasions, he 

 met a cow being driven to the slaughter-house, with 

 much shouting and beating with sticks and barking of 

 dogs. The explanation of this event which he puts in 

 Fazio's mouth is entirely conceived in the spirit of 

 rationalism. What was there to wonder at ? There was 



