me sleep, and that soon. Were
I to resign my office, I could find no other means of earning my bread: if
I should go mad I must become a laughing-stock to all. I must in any case
lavish what still remained of my patrimony, for at my advanced age I could
not hope to find fresh employment. Therefore I besought God that He would
send me death, which is the lot of all men. I went to bed: it was already
late, and, as I must needs rise at four in the morning, I should not have
more than two hours' rest. Sleep, however, fell upon me at once, and
meseemed that I heard a voice speaking to me out of the darkness. I could
discern naught, so it was impossible to say what voice it was, or who was
the speaker. It said, 'What would you have?' or 'What are you grieving
over?' and added, 'Is it that you mourn for your son's death?' I replied,
'Can you doubt this?' Then the voice answered, 'Take the stone which is
hanging round your neck and place it to your mouth, and so long as you
hold it there you will not be troubled with thoughts of your son.' Here I
awoke, and at once asked myself what this beryl stone could have to do
with sleep, but after a little, when I found no other means of escape from
my trouble, I called to mind the words spoken of a certain man: 'He hoped
even beyond hope, and it was accounted to him as righteousness' (spoken of
Abraham), and put the stone in my mouth, whereupon a thing beyond belief
came to pass. In a moment all remembrance of my son faded from my mind,
and the same thing happened when I fell asleep a second time after being
aroused."[199]

The record of Cardan's life for the next two years is a meagre one. His
rest was constantly disturbed either by the machinations of his foes or by
the dread thereof, the evil last-named being probably the more noxious of
the two. As long ago as 1557 he had begun the treatise _De Utilitate ex
Adversis Capienda_, a work giving evidence of careful construction, and
one which, as a literary performance, takes the first rank.[200] This book
had been put aside, either through pressure of other work or family
troubles, but now the circumstances in which he found himself seemed
perfectly congenial for the elaboration of a subject of this nature, so he
set to work to finish it, concluding with the chapter _De Luctu_, which
has been used largely as the authority for the foregoing narrative of Gian
Battista's crime and death. At this period, when his mind was fully stored
and hi