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that can boast his having become master of its doctrine in a year? And he, that shall have comprehended it in that time, must appear to have been instructed by a familiar demon." 
When we consider the transendent qualities of Cardanus's mind, we cannot deny his having cultivated it with every species of knowledge, and his having made a greater progress in philosophy, in medical art, in astronomy, in mathematics, &c. than the most part of his contemporaries who had applied their study but to one of those sciences. Scaliger who wrote with much warmth against Cardanus, is candid enough to own the other's being endowed with a very comprehensive, penetrating, and incomparable mind; wherefore, every thing duly examined, we cannot help joining in opinion, that his soul must have been of a most extraordinary cast. 
He has been accused of impiety, and even of atheism; because in his book de Subtilitate he quotes some principles of different religions, with the arguments upon which they are founded. He proposes the reasons offered by the Pagans, by the Jews, by the Mahometans, and by the Christians; but those of the last in the weakest light. Nevertheless, in reading the book which Cardanus hath composed de vitâ propriâ, we find more characteristic marks of a superstitious man, than of a freethinker. It is true, indeed, that he owns he was not a devotee, parum pius; but he at the same time declares, that although he was naturally very vindictive, he often let slip the occasion of satisfying his resentment: let such a neglect then be ascribed to his veneration for the Deity, Dei [[ob venerationem]]. 
He says, "there is no form of worship more pleasing to the Deity than that of obeying the law, against the strongest impulsion of our nature to trespass against it" 
He plumes himself greatly on having refused a considerable sum of money offered to him by Edward, king of England, on the condition that he would give to that prince those very titles which the pope had taken from him. We cannot find, in any work, proofs of more solidity and good sense than in the reflections made by him in the twenty-second chapter, where he unfoldeth his idea of religion. The reason which he assigns for his love of solitude, instead of making him liable to, ought rather to free him from, the charge of impiety, viz. "When I am alone, says he, "I am then more than at any other " time in company with those I " love, the Deity and my good angel."
Cardanus had a vast many irregular faculties, that were more daring than judicious, and was fonder of a redundancy than of a choice in materials to work upon. The same capriciousness observable in his moral conduct is to be remarked in the composition of his works. We have a multitude of treaties, in which the reader is flopped almost every moment by the obscurity of his text, or the digressions from the subject in point. In his arithmetical performances there are several discourses on the motion of the planets, on the creation, and on the tower of Babel. In his dialectic work we find his judgement upon historians and the writers of epistles. The only apology which he makes for the frequency of his digressions is, that they were purposely done for the sooner filling up of the sheet; his bargain with the bookseller being at so much per sheet; and that he worked as much for his daily support, as for the acquisition of glory.
  It was Cardanus who revived, in latter times, all the secret philosophy of the Cabala and Cabalists, which filled the world with spirits; a likeness to whom he asserted we might attain by purifying ourselves with philosophy.  He chose for himself, however, notwithstanding such reveries, this fine device, tempus mea possessio, tempus meus ager, " time is my sole possession, and the only fund I have to improve.

Anecdotes of Nicholas Ferrar, extracted from his Life by Bishop Turner.

NICHOLAS Ferrar was born in London, on the first day of February, 1591, being the third son of Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, a rich East-India merchant, and Mary his wife.  Young Nicholas was more remarkable, from his childhood, for a studious disposition, than for a robust constitution. At six years of age, he discovered a genius for history, particularly for that of the Bible, of which he made himself master in two or three years, and could repeat the Psalms without book.  The English Chronicle and Book of Martyrs often made him forget the time of meals and sleep.  At the age of eight, he was placed under the care of Mr. Brooks, a clergyman, who had retired from London, to a house near Newbury, in Berkshire.  Here Nicholas distinguished himself by his assiduity and retentive memory.
  At thirteen, being thought fit for the university, he was placed at Clare-hall, in Cambridge, under the tuition of Dr. Austin Linfell, afterwards raised to the fee of Peterborough.  At college, says the writer of his life, his chamber might always be known by the last candle put out at night, and the first lighted in the morning.
  The sedentary life which Nicholas led, joined to his tender habit of body, made his physician, Dr. Butler, judge it necessary for him to travel: and, as he had an opportunity of joining the train of the Princess Elizabeth, who had married Frederic, Count Palatine, and was to pass through Holland, he embraced it.  Dr. Scott, master of Clare-hall, having presented him to the princess, he attended her highness to Amsterdam; but not intending to go to the Palatinate, he took his leave of her highness, who dismissed him graciously.
  Passing on to Leipsic, he designed to fix for some tine in the university there, and applying to the ablest masters, was taught the grounds of all the liberal arts, and the method of artificial memory;  but the number of visitants, who were drawn by the reputation he acquired, robbing him of his privacy and retirement, he withdrew to a neighbouring village, where he remained a considerable time.
  Being now master of most of the modern

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