JOHN DEE 241 
Could John Dee have lived another century he might have found in 
the work of Isaac Newton some answer to his prayer. The very in- 
tensity of the longing to understand the mysteries of the universe was 
in part the cause of the errors into which he fell. His belief in astrol- 
ogy and in the value of the alchemical experiments on which he spent 
so much of his energy and substance may be accounted an error of the 
time rather than of the individual, but his long connection with Edward 
Kelley—charlatan and magician—is not easily reconciled with his intel- 
ligence. Kelley, at first an apothecary, became an avowed dealer in 
magic and seems, for a time, to have made a complete dupe of Dee, who 
in all good faith admitted him as a valued assistant in his researches 
and travels. Between the years 1582 and 1589 they were making 
alchemical experiments, peering into crystals, communing with spirits, 
ete.—part of the time in England, part of the time on the continent— 
chiefly at Prague. When in 1590 the real character of his masterful 
assistant became apparent, Dee experienced the keenest sorrow over 
misplaced confidence. 
But for the time of his wardenship of Manchester College, 1596- 
1604, he spent the remaining years of his life at Mortlake in poverty 
and sadness. Queen Elizabeth, in passing to and from Richmond, often 
stopped to question and console him and sent her own physicians when 
he was ill. From the records of the time “ Master ” Dee seems to have 
made a deep impression on the people round about, both because of his 
learning and of his handsome presence. Aubrey speaks of him as a great 
peacemaker among his neighbors, and adds “a mighty good man was 
he.” By some Dee was accounted a conjuror, and so oppressed was he 
by the charge that he petitioned James I. in 1604 that he might be 
tried and cleared of the horrible slander. After the king had inquired 
into the nature of his studies the petition was refused as unnecessary. 
Up to his death in 1608 Dee retained the profoundest interest in experi- 
ments. His magic crystal and cakes are preserved in the British 
Museum. 
Though his actual contribution to science was not great, John Dee 
belonged to and had an important part in the transition from the com- 
mentatorial period of the middle ages to that time of bold originality 
and vivid reality—the time of Bacon, Kepler, Galileo and of their young 
contemporary, Descartes. His eyes at least were above the plane on 
which Francis Bacon stood. Forerunners such as Dee prepared the 
way for the stupendous achievements of the seventeenth century—that 
century made notable by the introduction of the most powerful mathe- 
matical methods and by the use of these methods to obtain an under- 
standing of the laws that govern the phenomena of nature. 
VOL, LXXVII.—17. 
