Jerome Cardan | Page 9

marked by a division, is covered in its lower part with a thick growth
of long hair. My habit is to speak in a highly-pitched voice, so that my
friends sometimes rebuke me thereanent; but, harsh and loud as is my
voice, it cannot be heard at any great distance while I am lecturing. I
am wont to talk too much, and in none too urbane a tone. The look of
my eyes is fixed, like that of one in deep thought. My front teeth are
large, and my complexion red and white: the form of my countenance
being somewhat elongated, and my head is finished off in narrow wise

at the back, like to a small sphere. Indeed, it was no rare thing for the
painters, who came from distant countries to paint my portrait, to
affirm that they could find no special characteristic which they could
use for the rendering of my likeness, so that I might be known by the
same."[30]
After giving this account of his person, Cardan writes down a catalogue
of the various diseases which vexed him from time to time, a chapter of
autobiography which looks like a transcript from a dictionary of
Nosology. More interesting is the sketch which he makes of his mental
state during these early years. Boys brought up in company of their
elders often show a tendency to introspection, and fall into a dreamy
whimsical mood, and his case is a striking example. "By the command
of my father I used to lie abed until nine o'clock,[31] and, if perchance I
lay awake any time before the wonted hour of rising, it was my habit to
spend the same by conjuring up to sight all sorts of pleasant visions,
nor can I remember that I ever summoned these in vain. I used to
behold figures of divers kinds like airy bodies. Meseemed they were
made up of tiny rings, like those in coats of chain-armour, though at
this time I had seen nought of the kind. They would rise at the bottom
of the bed, from the right-hand corner; and, moving in a semi-circle,
would pass slowly on and disappear in the left. Moreover I beheld the
shapes of castles and houses, of horses and riders, of plants, trees,
musical instruments, theatres, dresses of men of all sorts, and
flute-players who seemed to be playing upon their instruments, but
neither voice nor sound was heard therefrom. And besides these things
I beheld soldiers, and crowds of men, and fields, and certain bodily
forms, which seem hateful to me even now: groves and forests, and
divers other things which I now forget. In all this I took no small
delight, and with straining eyes I would gaze upon these marvels;
wherefore my Aunt Margaret asked me more than once whether I saw
anything. I, though I was then only a child, deliberated over this
question of hers before I replied, saying to myself: 'If I tell her the facts
she will be wroth at the thing--whatever it may be--which is the cause
of these phantasms, and will deprive me of this delight.' And then I
seemed to see flowers of all kinds, and four-footed beasts, and birds;
but all these, though they were fashioned most beautifully, were

lacking in colour, for they were things of air. Therefore I, who neither
as a boy nor as an old man ever learned to lie, stood silent for some
time. Then my aunt said--'Boy, what makes you stare thus and stand
silent?' I know not what answer I made, but I think I said nothing at all.
In my dreams I frequently saw what seemed to be a cock, which I
feared might speak to me in a human voice. This in sooth came to pass
later on, and the words it spake were threatening ones, but I cannot now
recall what I may have heard on these occasions."[32]
With a brain capable of such remarkable exercises as the above-written
vision, living his life in an atmosphere of books, and with all games
and relaxations dear to boys of his age denied to him, it was no marvel
that Jerome should make an early literary essay on his own account.
The death of a young kinsman, Niccolo Cardano,[33] suggested to him
a theme which he elaborated in a tract called De immortalitate paranda,
a work which perished unlamented by its author, and a little later he
wrote a treatise on the calculation of the distances between the various
heavenly bodies.[34] But he put his mathematical skill to other and
more sinister uses than this; for, having gained practical experience at
the gaming-tables, he combined this experience with his knowledge of
the properties of numbers, and wrote a tract on games of chance.
Afterwards he