633 



DEE, JOHN. 



DE FOE, DANIEL. 



631 



Museum. In this glass the angels Gabriel and Raphael appeared at 

 their invocation. Hence Butler says 



" Kelly did all his feats upon 

 The devil's looking-glass a stone." 



The ' Book of Spirits ' is not however to be considered a fair sample 

 of Dee's absurdity, if taken literally ; and we are not sure that Dee 

 was himself the author of it It was published in 1659, more than 

 half a century after Dee's death, and hence its authenticity is ques- 

 tionable; but admitting its authenticity, it might have been a mere 

 cipher, in which special passages that were worked into the general 

 discourse were to be taken in a secretly specified order, eo as to 

 express other facts of a political nature. This was a favourite method 

 of cipher at that period. 



In 1583 a Polish noble, named Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia, 

 being in England, Dee and Kelly were introduced to him, whether 

 with a political object or not no direct evidence exists to inform us, 

 but they accompanied him to Poland. It is said that the attachment 

 arose from the similarity of their pursuits, that he soon became weary 

 of thorn by finding himself abused by their idle pretensions, and that 

 to get rid of them he persuaded them to pay a visit to Rodolph, king 

 of Bohemia; that moreover, though a weak and credulous man, 

 Kodolph was soon disgusted with their nonsense ; and that they had 

 no better success with the King of Poland ; but that they were soon 

 after invited by a rich Bohemian noble to his castle of Trebona, 

 where they continued for some time in great affluence, owing, as they 

 asserted, to their power of transforming the baser metals into gold. 



It was very probably from the circumstance of Laski's being 

 addicted to astrology and alchemy, as well as the King of Poland, 

 that Dee was employed by the queen's crafty ministers as a fitting 

 person for a political mission to that country, in the real character of 

 a ' secret intelligencer.' It was in keeping with the unvarying policy 

 of Elizabeth's government, and with the habits and previous occu- 

 pation of Dee. The ridiculous pretensions which he and Kelly set up 

 were well calculated to lull all suspicions of their real purpose. No 

 other hypothesis seems capable of affording a key to Dee's conduct 

 during this singular excursion; and all the circumstances admit of 

 tolerably complete explanation by it It is only fair to add however 

 that Dee, in his private ' Diary,' which includes all the period of this 

 Polish journey, gives no indication of any such secret object; but 

 then he gives no indication of any purpose whatever for undertaking 

 th- journey, or for returning home when ho did. 



Kelly appears to have been one of those sordid and servile characters 

 <A only at the immediate gain to be made of lach single transac- 

 tion, without having either principle or honour in his composition. 

 :i the contrary, was, as Lilly in his gossiping memoirs tells us, 

 " tho most ambitious man living, and most desirous of fame and 

 renown, and was never so well pleased as when he heard himself styled 

 Excellent." Lilly also gives a curious narrative of the means by 

 which the servant Kelly obtained the art of transmutation from a poor 

 friar, with whom Dee would have no intercourse ; and that when the 

 secret was obtained, the friar was made away with ; and one reason 

 given by this arch-knave of the Protectorate, Butler's ' Sidrophel,' 

 why " many weaknesses in the manage of that way of Mosaical learn- 

 ing (' conference with spirits,' in the book ascribed to Dee), was because 

 Kelly was very vicious, unto whom the angels were not obedient, or 

 willingly did declare the questions propounded." 



Dee and Kelly separated in Bohemia, the former returning to 

 England, the latter remaining at Prague. Of the circumstances attend- 

 ing this rupture nothing is certainly known ; though the narrative 

 given by Sidrophel is characteristic enough of Kelly's character. See 

 William Lilly's History of his Life and Times from 1602 to 1681, 

 p. 224, Baldwin's edition. 



In liJ!5 the queen appointed Dee warden of Manchester College, ho 

 being then sixty-eight years of age. He resided there nine years; but 

 from some cause not exactly known he left it in 1604, and returned 

 to his house at Mortlake, where he spent the remainder of his days. 

 He died in 1608, aged eighty-one, leaving a numerous family and a 

 great number of works behind him. " He died," says Lilly, " very 

 poor, enforced many times to sell some book or other to buy his 

 liiLiier with, as Dr. Napier of Linford in Buckinghamshire oft related, 

 who knew him very well : " but Dee was very extravagant in his style 

 of living, aud he had for many years been in pecuniary difficulties. 

 Long before and during the period of his wardenship of Manchester 

 College he appears from his ' Diary ' to have been in the constant 

 habit of borrowing money from his friends, and of raising small sums 

 by pawning articles of plate, &e. 



Dee's writings are very numerous, several of which still remain in 

 manuscript. A catalogue of his printed writings may be seen in his 

 | Compendious Hehearal,' or hi letter to Whitgift; and from these 

 it appears that he then had by him more than forty unpublished writ- 

 ings, the titles of which he gives. His 'Diary, 1 a curious record of 

 liis daily life during some important portion of his later life, was 

 printed in 1842 by the Camdeu Society, and along with it the Cata- 

 logue of his library of Manuscripts, made by himself before his house 

 wti plundered by the populace : it is curious, as containing the titles 

 of several works of mediaeval date, not now known to bo in existence. 

 His library is said to have cost him 3000J., a large sum for those days. 



DEFFA'ND, MARIE DE VICHY, MARQUISE DU, daughter of 

 Gaspard de Vichy, count of Champ Rond, was born in 1696. She 

 had natural parts, wit, playfulness, and taste, which her education, 

 expressly designed to fit her to shine in the saloons of the capital, 

 tended to stimulate. In 1718 she married the Marquis du Deffand, 

 a colonel, and afterwards general in the French service. Having some 

 time after separated from her husband, she had her own establish- 

 ment, her parties, her admirers, and her petits soupers. She lived 

 like many other ladies of rank and fashion of the times of the Regency 

 and of Louis XV., and her correspondence throws much light on the 

 manners of that age. She numbered among her friends and corres- 

 spondents some of the most distinguished men of France, such as 

 President Renault, Montesquieu, Marmontel, D'Alembert, Voltaire, 

 &c. After the death of her husband, in 1750, in order to accommo- 

 date herself to her reduced income, she gave up her establishment, 

 and took apartments in the external or extra-claustral part of the 

 Convent of St. Joseph, in the Rue St. Dominique, where she spent the 

 remaining thirty years of her life. She continued however her 

 evening parties, which were in great repute for wit, pleasantry, and 

 bon ton, and to which most foreigners of distinction who resorted to 

 Paris were introduced. Being afflicted with blindness, she took as a 

 companion and reader an unprotected young person, Mile, de 1'Espin- 

 asse ; but she afterwards became jealous of her, and they parted ; on 

 which occasion Madame du Deffand quarrelled with D'Alembert also. 

 She continued, though blind, to correspond with her friends, and 

 especially with Voltaire and Horace Walpole, to a very advanced age. 

 She died at St. Joseph, in September 17SO, in her eighty-fourth year. 

 Madame du Deffand possessed some very valuable qualities : she had 

 real wit aud taste without affectation, and much tact and sound judg- 

 ment whenever caprice or prejudice did not lead her astray. She 

 had a quick perception of merit of every kind, and her house was 

 always open to it : she had a horror of dogmatism, exaggeration, and 

 pedantry : although a free-thinker, she never partook of that absurd 

 fanaticism against religion which characterised some of the philosophic 

 writers of the 18th century. Her judgment was too calm and sober 

 not to perceive the inconsistency of philosophical intolerance; she 

 even gave some good advice to Voltaire on this subject, and was one 

 of th very few who spoke frankly to him. Her ' Correspoudanco do 

 Madame du Deffand avec M. Walpole do 1766 a 1780, suivie de ses 

 Lettrcs a M. de Voltaire de 1759 a 1775,' appeared iu 4 vols. 8vo, 

 1810 ; and also ' Correspondancc inddite de Madame du Deffaad avec 

 D'Alembert, Montesquieu, le President Hduault, &c., suivie des Luttres 

 de M. de Voltaire Si Madame du Deffand,' 2 vols. Svo, Paris, 1S09, 

 with a biographical notice. 



DE FOE, DANIEL, the son of James Foe, u butcher iu the p:irish 

 of St. Giles, Cripplegate, was born in London iu 1C61. Of his youth- 

 ful years we have nothing particular to relate. His father, who was 

 a Dissenter, sent him to a Dissenting academy at Newingtou Green, 

 conducted by Charles Morton, a man of learning, aud a judicious 

 teacher, where ho remained till about 1G30. Aa the only education 

 he received was at this time, we may conclude that he applied with 

 considerable advantage. In 1705 he challenged one of his adversaries 

 " to translate with me any Latin, French, or Italian author, and after 

 that to re-translate them crossways." He himself states that he had 

 been educated for the ministry, but we have no information as to 

 why his destination was altered. Different reasons have been assigned 

 for his prefixing ' De ' to the family name of Foe : the cause of his 

 doing so has not been ascertained, but it was uot adopted until after 

 he had attained manhood. De Foe first appeared as au author in 

 1082, when he published a pamphlet against the prevalent high-church 

 notions, under the title of ' Speculum Crape Gownorum ; or, a Lookiug- 

 Glass for the young Academics, new foyld, with Reflections ou some 

 of tho late high-flown Sermons ; to which is added a Sermon of the 

 Newest Fashion.' In 1783 he issued another pamphlet on the war 

 that was then carried on between the Austriaus and the Turks. Two 

 years afterwards, his aversion to James II. aud his government, and 

 his zeal for the maintenance of Protestantism, induced him to enlist 

 under the Duke of Monmouth, whose rash and ill-concerted conspiracy 

 was the cause of so many executious. Our author had the good 

 fortune to escape the fate that numbers of his companions suffered. 

 After this he engaged in business; he calls himself a trader, and 

 denies that he was "a hosier or au apprentice." He was probably a 

 hose-factor and wool-dealer (in the prosecution of which latter branch 

 of his business he is said by Wilson, in his ' Life aud Times of De 

 Foe,' to have made more than one voyage to Spain). His circum- 

 stances however became involved, and a commission of bankruptcy 

 was taken out against him in 1C92, but it was immediately superseded, 

 his creditors accepting a composition, takiug his own bonds for the 

 payment. 



In January 1687-88 he was admitted a freeman of tho city of 

 London ; and in 1695 was appointed accountant to the commissioners 

 for managing the duties on glass a short-lived occupation, which ho 

 lost in 1699, when the tax was suppressed. During this period he 

 published several pamphlets, chiefly on tho ' Occasional Conformity of 

 Dissenters,' which brought him into controveisy with John Howe. 

 He had devised many projects for tho benefit of the country ; aud, 

 when this oommissionership wan at an end, he determined to try one 

 for his own advantage. This was for the manufacture of pautiles, 



