JEROME CARDAN 145 



Governor, desired to secure his services as physician to 

 the Duke of Mantua, his brother, offering him thirty 

 thousand gold crowns as honorarium ; but, in spite of 

 the Governor's persuasions and threats, be would not 

 accept the office. When the news had come to Paris 

 that Cardan was about to quit Britain, forty of the most 

 illustrious scientists of France repaired to Paris in order 

 to hear him expound the art of Medicine ; but the dis- 

 turbed state of the country deterred him from setting 

 foot in France. He refers to a letter from his friend 

 Ranconet as a testimony of the worship that was paid 

 to him, and goes on to say that, in his journeying 

 through France and Germany, he fared much as Plato 

 fared at the Olympic games. 



In a passage which Cardan wrote shortly after his 

 return from Britain, he lets it be seen that he was not 

 ill-satisfied with the figure he then made in the world. 

 He writes "Therefore, since all those with whom I am 

 intimate think well of me for my truth and probity, I 

 can let my envious rivals indulge themselves as they list 

 in the shameful habit of evil-speaking. With regard to 

 folly, if I now utter, or ever have uttered, foolish words, 

 let those who accuse me show their evidence, I, who 

 was born poor, with a weakly body, in an age vexed 

 almost incessantly by wars and tumults, helped on by 

 no family influence, but forced to contend against the 

 bitter opposition of the College at Milan, contrived to 

 overcome all the plots woven against me, and open 

 violence as well. All the honours which a physician 

 can possess I either enjoy, or have refused when they 

 were offered to me. I have raised the fortunes of my 

 family, and have lived a blameless life. I am well 

 known to all men of worship, and to the whole of 

 Europe. What I have written has been lauded ; in 



