1 64 JEROME CARDAN 



After lamenting the vast amount of time he has wasted 

 over the game of chess, he goes on : " But the play with 

 the dice, an evil far more noxious, found its way into my 

 house ; and, after my sons had learned to play the same, 

 my doors always stood open to dicers. I can find no 

 excuse for this practice except the trivial one, that, what 

 I did, I did in the hope of relieving the poverty of my 

 children." 1 In a home of this sort, ruled by a father who 

 was assuredly more careful of his work in the study and 

 class-room than of his duties as paterfamilias, it is not 

 wonderful that the two young men, Gian Battista and 

 Aldo, should grow up into worthless profligates. It has 

 been recorded how Cardan, during a journey to Genoa, 

 wrote a Book of Precepts for his children, 2 a task the 

 memory of which afterwards wrung from him a cry of 

 despair. There never was compiled a more admirable 

 collection of maxims ; but, excellent as they were, it was 

 not enough to write them down on paper; and the young 

 men, if ever they took the trouble to read them, must 

 have smiled as they called to mind the difference between 

 their father's practices and the precepts he had composed 

 for their guidance. Furthermore, he had written at 

 length, in the De Consolatione, on the folly which parents 

 for the most part display in the education of their 

 children. " They show their affection in such foolish 

 wise, that it would be nearer the mark to say they hate, 

 rather than love, their offspring. They bring them up 

 not to follow virtue, but to occupy themselves with all 

 manner of hurtful things ; not to learning, but to riot ; 

 not to the worship of God, but to foster in them the 



1 De Vita Propria^ ch. xiii. p. 45 . 



2 " Quid profuit base tua industria, quis infelicior in filiis ? quorum 

 alter male periit : alter nee regi potest nee regere?" Opera, torn, 

 i. p. 109. 



