296 JEROME CARDAN 



consecrasset eo tempore, quo corpus Christi pendebet in 

 cruce ? " are samples which will be generally familiar, 

 but the very absurdity of these exercitations serves to 

 prove how strenuous must have been the temper of the 

 times which preferred to exhaust itself over such 

 banalities as are typified by the extracts above written, 

 rather than remain inactive. The dogmas in learning 

 were fixed as definitely as in religion, and the solution of 

 every question was found and duly recorded. The 

 Philosopher was allowed to strike out a new track, but if 

 he valued his life or his ease, he would take care to 

 arrive finally at the conclusion favoured by authority. 



Cardan may with justice be classed both with men of 

 science and men of letters. In spite of the limitations 

 just referred to it is certain that as he surveyed the 

 broadening horizon of the world of knowledge, he must 

 have felt the student's spasm of agony when he first 

 realized the infinity of research and the awful brevity of 

 time. His reflections on old age give proof enough of 

 this. If he missed the labour in the full harvest-field, 

 the glimpse of the distant mountain tops, suffused for 

 the first time by the new light, he missed likewise the 

 wearing labour which fell upon the shoulders of those 

 who were compelled by the new philosophy to use new 

 methods in presenting to the world the results of their 

 midnight research. Such work as Cardan undertook in 

 the composition of his moral essays, and in the Com- 

 mentary on Hippocrates put no heavy tax on the brain 

 or the vital energies ; the Commentary was of portentous 

 length, but it was not much more than a paraphrase 

 with his own experiences added thereto. Mathematics 

 were his pastime, to judge by the ease and rapidity with 

 which he solved the problems sent to him by Francesco 



