Though the note of sorrow or even of despair is perceptible in these sentences, there is no sign that the virile and elastic spirit of the writer is broken. But there are manifest signs of an increasing tendency towards mental detachment from the world which had used him so ill. With the happiest of men the almost certain prospect of extinction at the end of a dozen years usually tends to foster the growth of a conviction that the world after all is a poor affair, and that to quit it is no great evil. How strongly therefore must reflections of a kindred nature have worked upon a man so cruelly tried as Cardan! FOOTNOTES: [211] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 462. [212] "Sed filius minor natu adeo male se gessit, ut malim transire in nepotem ex primo filio."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxvi. p. 112. [213] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxvii. p. 71. [214] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xii. p. 40. [215] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 459. [216] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xvii. p. 56. [217] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxiii. p. 104. [218] This opinion prevailed with men of learning far into the next century. Sir Thomas Browne writes: "They that doubt of these, do not only deny them, but spirits; and are obliquely and upon consequence a sect not of infidels, but atheists."--_Religio Medici, Works_, vol. ii. p. 89. [219] This was the Cardinal, the nephew of Andrea the great jurist, who was also a good friend of Cardan. [220] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 463. CHAPTER XII AT the beginning of the year 1565 Cardan had a narrow escape from death by burning, for his bed from some unknown cause caught fire twice in the same night while he was asleep. The servant was disturbed by the smoke, and having aroused his master, told him what was amiss, whereupon Cardan flew into a violent rage, for he deemed that the youth must be drunk. But he soon perceived the danger, and then they both set to work to extinguish the flames. His own description of the occurrence is highly characteristic. "Having put out the fire, I settled myself again to sleep, and, while I was dreaming of alarms, and that I was flying from some danger, it happened that either these terrifying dreams, or the fire and smoke again aroused me, and, looking around, I found that the bed was once more alight, and the greater part of it consumed. The vari-coloured coverlet, the leather hangings, and all the covering of the bed was unhurt. Thus this great alarm and danger and serious disturbance caused only a trifling loss; less than half of the bed-linen was burnt, but the blankets were entirely consumed. On the first alarm the flames burnt out twice or thrice with little smoke, and caused scarcely any damage. The second time the fire and the mishap forced me to rise just before dawn, the fire lasting altogether about seven hours."