JEROME CARDAN 261 



which were afterwards seized upon by hostile critics as 

 evidence of his disregard of truth. 



Another of his minor works highly characteristic of 

 the author is the Somniorum Synesiorum^ a collection of 

 all the remarkable dreams he ever dreamt, many of 

 which have been already noticed. To judge from what 

 specimens of his epistles are extant, Cardan seems to have 

 been a good letter-writer. One of the most noteworthy 

 is that which he addressed to Gian Battista after his 

 marriage. It shows Cardan to have been a loving father 

 and a master of sapient exhortation, while the son's fate 

 gives melancholy testimony of the futility of good 

 counsel unaided by direction and example. He tells of 

 his grief at seeing the evil case into which his son had 

 fallen, vexed by poverty, disgrace, and loss of health, 

 how he would gladly even now receive the prodigal into 

 his house (he says nothing about the wife), did he not 

 fear that such a step would lead to his own ruin rather 

 than to his son's restoration. After showing that any 

 fresh misfortune to himself must needs cut away the last 

 hope for Gian Battista, he sketches out a line of conduct 

 for the ill-starred youth which he declared, if rightly 

 pursued, might re-establish his fortunes. 



He begins by advising his son to read and lay to 

 heart the contents of the De Consolatione and the De 

 Utilitate^ and then, somewhat more to the purpose, 

 promises him half his earnings of the present and the 

 coming year. Beyond this Gian Battista should have 

 half the salary of any office which his father might get 

 for himself, and half of the piece of silk which he had 

 received from the Venetian Ambassador, supposing that 

 the young man should not be able to get a like piece 

 for himself from the same source. 



He next cites the De Consolatione to demonstrate the 



