hope of rest. That
overwhelming horror and the sense of falling headlong may have had
reference to the ruin of my son.[65]

"My second dream occurred a short time after. It seemed to me that my soul
was in the heaven of the moon, freed from the body and all alone, and when
I was bewailing my fate I heard the voice of my father, saying: 'God has
appointed me as a guardian to you. All this region is full of spirits, but
these you cannot see, and you must not speak either to me or to them. In
this part of heaven you will remain for seven thousand years, and for the
same time in certain other stars, until you come to the eighth. After
this you shall enter the kingdom of God.' I read this dream as follows. My
father's soul is my tutelary spirit. What could be dearer or more
delightful? The Moon signifies Grammar; Mercury Geometry and Arithmetic;
Venus Music, the Art of Divination, and Poetry; the Sun the Moral, and
Jupiter the Natural, World; Mars Medicine; Saturn Agriculture, the
knowledge of plants, and other minor arts. The eighth star stands for a
gleaning of all mundane things, natural science, and various other
studies. After dealing with these I shall at last find my rest with the
Prince of Heaven."[66]

FOOTNOTES:

[45] "Nec ullum mihi erat relictum auxilium nisi latrunculorum
Ludus."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 619.

[46] From the formation of the League of Cambrai in 1508 to the
establishment of the Imperial supremacy in Italy in 1530, the whole
country was desolated by the marching and counter-marching of the
contending forces. Milan, lying directly in the path of the French armies,
suffered most of all.

[47] Compare _De Vita Propria_, chaps. iv. and xxxi. pp. 13 and 92.

[48] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxi. p. 92. In taking the other view he
writes: "Vitam ducebam in Saccensi oppido, ut mihi videbar,
infelicissime."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 97.

[49] _De Utilitate_, p. 235.

[50] He gives a long and interesting sketch of his father-in-law in _De
Utilitate_, p. 370.

[51] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxvi. p. 68; _Opera_, tom. i. p. 97.

[52] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xli. p. 149.

[53] _De Utilitate_, p. 350.

[54] _De Utilitate_, p. 357: "Nam in urbe nec collegium recipere volebat
nec cum aliquo ex illis artem exercere licebat et sine illis difficillimum
erat." He writes thus while describing this particular visit to Milan.

[55] Ill fortune seems to have pursued the whole family in their relations
with learned soci