JOHN DEE 237 
to the imperfection of Nature not answerable to the preciseness of 
demonstration.” 
The preface is framed for such 
who well can, (and also will) use their outward senses to the glory of God, the 
benefite of their Country, and their own secret contentation, or honest prefer- 
ment on this earthly Scaffold. To them I will orderly recite, describe and 
declare a great number of Artes, from our two Mathematicall fountaines, de- 
rived into the fields of Nature. Whereby such Sedes, and Rotes, as lye depe 
hyd in the ground of Nature, are refreshed, quickened, and provoked to grow, 
shote up, floure, and give frute, infinite, and incredible. . . . At this time I 
define an Arte to be a Methodicall complete doctrine, having abundancy of 
sufficient, and peculiar matter to deale with, by the allowance of the Metaphys- 
icall Philosopher: the knowledge whereof, to humaine state is necessarye. And 
that I account, an Art Mathematicall derivative, which by Mathematicall dem- 
onstrative Method, in Numbers, or Magnitudes, ordereth and confirmeth his 
doctrine, as much and as perfectly, as the matter subject will admit. 
It seems certain that John Dee had also a conscious belief in the 
value to science itself of the application of its principles. He invites 
his reader to “ consider the infinite desire of knowledge, and incredible 
power of man’s Search and Capacitye how, they jointly have waded 
farder by mixtying of speculation and practise.’ Compare with this 
a sentence by Ernst Haeckel written three centuries later: 
We must welcome as one of the most fortunate steps in the direction of a 
solution of the great cosmic problems the fact that of recent years there is a 
growing tendency to recognize the two paths which alone lead thereto— 
experience and thought, or speculation to be of equal value, and mutually 
complementary.* 
John Dee’s long life covers a dramatic period in the history of the 
development of thought, and as the most widely known English scholar 
of his generation his education and wanderings are interesting. It was 
in 1526 that the books were burned in Oxford in the futile attempt to 
stop the new learning. In the following year John Dee was born of 
the ancient family of Dees of Radnorshire. His father, Rowland Dee, 
was by some accounts a vintner in London, by others he is described as 
gentleman sewer to Henry VIII. Whatever his occupation, he was a 
friend to the universities, and in 1542 sent his son to St. John’s College, 
Cambridge. Here he remained, first as student, then as foundation 
fellow, until 1546. When in the same year Trinity College was founded 
by patent of Henry VIII., Dee was made one of the original fellows and 
was, as he says, assigned there to be the “under reader of the Greek 
tongue.” At the same time he was occupied with mathematical and 
astronomical studies and on “ going down ” gave to Trinity his astro- 
nomical instruments. 
At that time the men of the universities seemed not to aspire to 
know more than was to be learned from Plato and Aristotle. That 
John Dee had a mental appetite beyond the ability of Cambridge to 
satisfy appears from his account of his wanderings, 
*“ Riddle of the Universe,” p. 18. 
