"His career is an account of the most extraordinary and inconsistent acts. A gambler, if not a murderer, he was an ardent student of science, solving problems which had long baffled all investigation; at one time in his life he was devoted to intrigues which were a scandal even in the sixteenth century, at another he did nothing but rave on astrology, and yet at another he declared that philosophy was the only subject worthy of a man's attention. His was the genius that was closely allied to madness."