266 JEROME CARDAN 



usage if he had not, in an excess of candour, set down 

 the workings of his mind and conscience with regard to 

 this matter. Writing of his treatment of Archbishop 

 Hamilton, he says : " And in truth I cured scarcely any 

 patients of phthisic disease, though I did find a remedy 

 for many who were suffering from similar maladies, 

 wherefore that boast of mine, that proclamation of merit 

 to which I had no right, worked no small profit to me, a 

 man very little given to lying. For the people about 

 the Archbishop, urged on by these and other considera- 

 tions, persuaded him that he had no chance of regaining 

 his health except by putting himself under my care, and 

 that he should fly to me as his last hope." 1 It has 

 already been noted that Cardan's claim to some past 

 knowledge in the successful treatment of chest diseases 

 had weight with the Archbishop and Cassanate, and the 

 result of his visit surely proved that their confidence was 

 not ill-placed ; his boasting may have been a trifle ex- 

 cessive, but it was based on hope rather than achieve- 

 ment; and if proof can be adduced that it was not 

 prompted by any greed of illegitimate fame or profit, it 

 may justly be ranked as a weakness rather than as a 

 serious offence. To these two instances of falsehood 

 Naude adds a third, to wit, Cardan's claim to the 

 guidance of a familiar spirit. He refuses to let this rank 

 as a delusion ; and, urged no doubt by righteous in- 

 dignation against the ills springing from kindred super- 

 stitions, he writes down as a liar rather than a dupe the 

 man who, after mastering the whole world of science, 

 could profess such folly. 



Considering the catholicity of Cardan's achievements, 

 and the eager spirit of inquiry he displayed in fields of 

 learning remote from his own particular one, it is worthy 

 1 Opera, torn. i. p. 136. 



