It seemed good to his father now that he should prosecute his studies in earnest, with the view of choosing a more lucrative profession than that of letters or Court-service.

Bernardo, while finishing the _Amadigi_, which he dedicated to Philip II., sent his son in 1560 to Padua.

He was to become a lawyer under the guidance of Guido Panciroli.

But Tasso, like Ovid, like Petrarch, like a hundred other poets, felt no inclination for juristic learning.

He freely and frankly abandoned himself to the metaphysical conclusions which were being then tried between Piccolomini and Pendasio, the one an Aristotelian dualist, the other a materialist for whom the soul was not immortal.