OLD AND NEW ALCHEMY 259 



Kelley, a clever knave, who served as his spiritualistic 

 medium and alchemistic instructor. Their joint gold- 

 making career was not wholly unprosperous. Albert Laski, 

 a credulous and impecunious foreign prince, hoped to re- 

 trieve his broken fortunes through the medium of the 

 philosopher's stone. Leicester introduced him in 1583 to 

 Dee, who entertained him at Mortlake at the Queen's ex- 

 pense, convinced him of his recondite powers, and at his 

 request followed him, in the company of Kelley, to the 

 castle of Laskoe, near Cracow. There they wasted costly 

 materials until their host, at the end of his resources and 

 of his patience, despatched them to Prague. Expelled 

 thence as sorcerers, and refused admittance to Erfurt, they 

 were assigned by Count Kosenberg in 1586 a stately resi- 

 dence at Tribau in Bohemia. Dee's globe of smoky glass 

 and mirror of cannel coal were now again in requisition for 

 the purposes of spiritualistic evocations, and Kelley, hav- 

 ing transmuted into gold a section of a warming-pan, sent 

 it in triumph to Queen Elizabeth; while Arthur Dee and 

 young Rosenberg played at quoits (we are told) with 

 pieces of gold and silver made by projection. The reputed 

 source of this Lydian opulence was a considerable stock, 

 discovered by Kelley amid the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, 

 of the " stone of the wise." But the partners inevitably 

 fell out. Kelley, who in his golden days had been knighted, 

 it is believed, by the Emperor, was subsequently thrown 

 into prison at Prague, and perished in attempting to escape 

 in 1595. Dee returned in 1589 to England, destitute of 

 his fairy wealth, and lacking the means to produce more. 

 He, however, still enjoyed royal favor; pensions and pre- 

 ferments relieved his immediate wants, and he was ap- 

 pointed warden of Manchester College in 1595. He 

 resigned the post in 1604, and died four years later in 

 extreme penury. A half -convinced charlatan, he was the 

 victim and the plaything of the malign influences to which 

 he surrendered himself. 



Henricus Cornelius Agrippa (1486 to 1535) and Aure- 



