JEROME CARDAN 213 



spent his weary leisure in brooding over his sorrows. 

 He began his long rambling epilogue to the De Libris 

 Propriis, and, almost on the threshold, pours out his 

 sorrow afresh over Gian Battista's unhappy fate. After 

 affirming that Death must necessarily come as a friend 

 to those whose lives are wretched, he begins to speculate 

 whether, after all, he ought not to rejoice rather than 

 mourn over his son's death. " Certes he is rid of this 

 miserable life of danger and difficulty, vain, sorrowful, 

 brief, and inconstant ; these times in which the major 

 part of the good things of the world fall to the trickster's 

 share, and all may be enjoyed by those who are backed 

 up by wealth or power or favour. Power is good when 

 it is in the hands of those who use it well, but it is a 

 great evil when murderers and poisoners are allowed to 

 wield it. To the ill-starred, to the ungodly, and to the 

 foolish, death is a boon, freeing them from numberless 

 dangers, from heavy griefs, from fatal troubles, and from 

 infamy ; wherefore in such cases it ought not to be 

 spoken of as something merely good or indifferent, but 

 rated as the best of fortune. Shall I not declare to God 

 (for He willed the deed), to myself, and to my surviving 

 family, that my son's death was a thing to be desired, 

 for God does all justly, wisely, and lovingly ? He lets 

 me stand as an example to show others that a good and 

 upright man cannot be altogether wretched. I am poor, 

 infirm, and old ; bereaved by a cruel wrong of my best- 

 loved son, a youth of the fairest promise, and left only 

 with the faintest hope of any ray of future good fortune, 

 or of seeing my race perpetuated after my death, for my 

 daughter, who has been nine years married, is barren. 



"At one time I was prosperous in every relation of 

 life : in my friendships, in my children, and in my health 

 In my youth I seemed to be one raised up to realize the 



