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