JEROME CARDAN 151 



that I might issue from this conflict a conqueror; and is 

 there living a man blind enough not to perceive that 

 what I looked for was hard-earned credit, which I should 

 certainly have won by finding my views confirmed by 

 Cardan living, and not for inglorious peace brought 

 about by his death ? And indeed I might have been 

 suffered to have share in the bounty and kindliness of 

 this illustrious man, whom I have always heard de- 

 scribed as a shrewd antagonist and one full of confidence 

 in his own high position, for it was an easy task to win 

 from him the ordinary rights of friendship by any 

 trifling letter, seeing that he was the most courteous of 

 mankind. It is scarcely likely that I, weary as I was, 

 one who in fighting had long been used to perils of all 

 sorts, should thus cast aside my courage ; that I, worn 

 out by incessant controversies and consumed by the 

 daily wear and tear of writing, should care for an in- 

 glorious match with so distinguished an antagonist ; or 

 that I should have set my heart upon winning a bare 

 victory in the midst of all this dust and tumult. For 

 not only was the result which has ensued unlooked for 

 in the nature of things and in the opinion of all men 

 qualified to judge in such a case ; it was also the last 

 thing I could have desired to happen, for the sake of 

 my good name. My judgment has ever been that all 

 men (for in sooth all of us are, so to speak, little less 

 than nothing) may so lose their heads in controversy 

 that they may actually fight against their own interests. 

 And if such a mischance as this may happen to any 

 man of eminence as has been my case, and the case of 

 divers others I could recall it shall not be written down 

 in the list of his errors, unless in aftertimes he shall 

 seek to justify the same. It is necessary to advance 

 roughness in the place of refinement, and stubborn 



