JEROME CARDAN 257 



the writing of which beguiled the tedium of his voyage 

 down the Loire on his journey to Paris in 1552, is a 

 book upon which he spent great care, and is certainly 

 worthy of notice. Cardan's gratitude to Archbishop 

 Hamilton for the liberal treatment and gracious recep- 

 tion he had recently encountered in Scotland, prompted 

 him to dedicate this volume to his late patient. He 

 writes in the preface how he had expected to find the 

 Scots a pack of barbarians, but their country, he affirms, 

 is cultivated and humanized beyond belief, "and you 

 yourself reflect such splendour upon your nation that 

 now, by the very lustre of your name, it must needs 

 appear to the world more noble and illustrious than at 

 any time heretofore. What need is there for me to 

 speak of the school founded by you at St. Andrews, 

 of sedition quelled, of your country delivered, of the 

 authority of your brother the Regent vindicated ? These 

 are merely the indications of your power, and not the 

 source thereof." In the preface he also writes at length, 

 concerning the horoscope of Christ, 1 in a strain of 

 apology, as if he scented already the scandal which the 

 publication of this injudicious performance was destined 

 to raise. In estimating the influence of comets he sets 

 down several instances which had evidently been brought 

 to his notice during his sojourn in Scotland : how in 

 1165, within fourteen days of the appearance of a great 

 comet, Malcolm IV., known on account of his conti- 

 nence as the virgin king, fell sick and died. Again, 

 in 1214 two comets, one preceding and the other following 

 the sun, appeared as fore-runners of the death of King 

 William after a reign of forty-nine years. Perhaps the 

 most interesting of his comments on Ptolemy's text are 

 those which estimate the power of the stellar influences 



1 This is on p. 164. 



s 



