te them
down on paper; and the young men, if ever they took the trouble to read
them, must have smiled as they called to mind the difference between their
father's practices and the precepts he had composed for their guidance.
Furthermore, he had written at length, in the _De Consolatione_, on the
folly which parents for the most part display in the education of their
children. "They show their affection in such foolish wise, that it would
be nearer the mark to say they hate, rather than love, their offspring.
They bring them up not to follow virtue, but to occupy themselves with all
manner of hurtful things; not to learning, but to riot; not to the worship
of God, but to foster in them the desire to drain the cup of lustful
pleasure; not for the life eternal, but to the enticements of
lechery."[181]

At this time Gian Battista had gained the doctorate of medicine at Pavia,
and had made his contribution to medical knowledge by the publication of
an insignificant tract, _De cibis foetidis non edendis_. Cardan was
evidently full of hope for his elder son's career, but Aldo seems to have
been a trouble from the first. Yet, in casting Aldo's horoscope (probably
at the time of his birth) Cardan predicts for him a flourishing
future.[182] Never was there made a worse essay in prophecy. Aldo's
childhood had been a sickly one. He had well-nigh died of convulsions, and
later on he had been troubled with dysentery, abscesses of the brain, and
a fever which lasted six months. Moreover, he could not walk till he was
three years old. With a weakly body, his nature seems to have put forth
all sorts of untoward growths. There is a story which Naude brings forward
as part of his indictment against Cardan, that the father being irritated
beyond endurance by some ill conduct of his younger son during supper, cut
off his ear by way of punishment. It was a most barbarous act; one going
far beyond the range of any tradition of the early _patria potestas_,
which may have yet lingered in Italy; and scarcely calculated to bring
about reformation in the youth thus punished. In any case, Aldo went on
from bad to worse; at one time his father found it necessary to place him
under restraint, and the last record of him is that one in Cardan's
testament, by which he was disinherited.

Gian Battista's failings were doubtless grave and numerous, but he had at
least sufficient industry to qualify himself as a physician. He was
certainly his father's f