i 34 JEROME CARDAN 



music. His culture is the reflection of our mortal 

 nature; his gravity that of kingly majesty, and his 

 disposition is worthy of so illustrious a prince. Speak- 

 ing generally, it was indeed a strange experience to 

 realize that this boy of so great talent and promise 

 was being educated in the knowledge of the affairs of 

 men. I have not set forth his accomplishments, tricked 

 out with rhetoric so as to exceed the truth ; of which, in 

 sooth, my relation falls short." Cardan next draws a 

 figure of Edward's horoscope, and devotes several pages 

 to the customary jargon of astrologers ; and, under the 

 heading "De animi qualitatibus," says: "There was some- 

 thing portentous about this boy. He had learnt, as I 

 heard, seven languages, and certainly he knew thoroughly 

 his own, French, and Latin. He was skilled in Dialectic, 

 and eager to be instructed in all subjects. When I met 

 him, he was in his fifteenth year, and he asked me 

 (speaking Latin no less perfectly and fluently than 

 myself), 'What is contained in those rare books of 

 yours, De rerum varietate ? ' for I had dedicated these 

 manuscripts to his name. 1 Whereupon I began by 

 pointing out to him what I had written in the opening 

 chapter on the cause of the comets which others had 

 sought so long in vain. He was curious to hear more 

 of this cause, so I went on to tell him that it was the 

 collected light of the wandering stars. 'Then/ said 

 he, ' how is it, since the stars are set going by various 

 impulses, that this light is not scattered, or carried along 

 with the stars in their courses ? ' I replied : ' It does 

 indeed move with them, but at a speed vastly greater on 

 account of the difference of our point of view; as, for 



1 Cardan evidently carried the MS. with him, for he writes 

 (Opera, torn. i. p. 72) : " Hoc fuit quod Regi Anglias Edoardo sexto 

 admodum adolescent! dum redirem a Scotia ostendi." 



