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For more than twenty years, in long and frequent disputes, he had

sustained the pre-eminence of Cardan against another learned man

attached to the system of Alcabizio, "from pure obstinacy," said

Don Ferrante, who, in acknowledging voluntarily the superiority

of the ancients, could not, however, endure the prejudice which

would never accord to the moderns, even that which they evidently

deserved. He had also a more than ordinary acquaintance with the

history of the science; he could cite the most celebrated

predictions which had been verified, and reason very skilfully

and learnedly on other celebrated predictions which had not been

verified, demonstrating that the failure was not owing to any

deficiency in the science, but to the ignorance which could not

apply its principles.