JEROME CARDAN 291 



death, disease, and of the peculiar physical misfortune 

 which befell him in early manhood. Like Cicero he 

 goes on to treat of Old Age, but in a spirit so widely 

 different that a brief comparison of the conclusions of 

 the two philosophers will not be without interest. Old 

 age, Cardan declares to be the most cruel and irrepar- 

 able evil with which man is cursed, and to talk of old 

 age is to talk of the crowning misfortune of humanity. 

 Old men are made wretched by avarice, by dejection, 

 and by terror. He bids men not to be deceived by the 

 flowery words of Cicero, 1 when he describes Cato as an 

 old man, like to a fair statue of Polycleitus, with facul- 

 ties unimpaired and memory fresh and green. He next 

 goes on to catalogue the numerous vices and deformities 

 of old age, and instances from Aristotle what he 

 considers to be the worst of all its misfortunes, to wit 

 that an old man is well-nigh cut off from hope ; and by 

 way of comment grimly adds, " If any man be plagued by 

 the ills of old age he should blame no one but himself, 

 for it is by his own choice that his life has run on so 

 long." He vouchsafes a few words of counsel as to 

 how this hateful season may be robbed of some of its 

 horror. Our bodies grow old first, then our senses, then 

 our minds. Therefore let us store our treasures in that 

 part of us which will hold out longest, as men in a 

 beleaguered city are wont to collect their resources in the 

 citadel, which, albeit it must in the end be taken, will 

 nevertheless be the last to fall into the foeman's hands. 

 Old men should avoid society, seeing that they can 

 bring nothing thereto worth having : whether they speak 



1 In De Consolatione (Opera, torn. i. p. 604) he writes : 

 " Quantum diligentiae, quantum industries Cicero adjecit, quo 

 conatu nixus est ut persuaderet senectutem esse tolerandam." 



