Preface

22101520797

The Alchemical Writings of
Edward Kelly.

I*

THE

ALCHEMICAL WRITINGS

OF

EDWARD KELLY.

TRANSLATED FROM THE HAMBURG EDITION OF 1 676,
AND EDITED WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.

lEoniiBti :

JAMES ELLIOTT and CO.,

Temple Chambers, Falcon Court, Fleet Street, E.C.

^r\en-r

ft KTft .J>

EDWARD KELLY

THE Englishman’s

TWO EXCELLENT TREATISES

ON THE

PHILOSOPHER’S STONE,

TOGETHER WITH

THE THEATRE OF TERRESTRIAL
ASTRONOMY.

WITH EMBLEMATIC FIGURES.

Now FIRST PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE

Sons of Hermes by J. L. M. C.

(THAT is, John Lilly and Meric Casaubon).

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Biographical Preface ... ... ... ix.

The Stone of the Philosophers ... ... i

Certain Fragments selected from the

Letters of Edward Kelly ... ... 51

The Humid Way, or a Discourse upon

the Vegetable Menstruum of Saturn 55

The Theatre of Terrestrial Astronomy 1 1 1

Index ...

... 149

BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.

I VENTURE to hope,” says the
subject of this memoir, in his
treatise entitled De Lapide
Philosophorum^ “that my life and char-
acter will so become known to posterity
that I may be counted among those
who have suffered much for the sake of
truth.” The justification thus modestly
desired by Edward Kelly has not been
accorded him by the supreme court of
judgment to which he appealed. Pos-
terity continues to regard him in much
the same light as he was looked at by
the men of his immediate period, as a
fraudulent notary who was deservedly
deprived of his ears ; as a sordid im-
postor, who duped the immeasurable
credulity of the learned Doctor Dee,
and subsequently involved his victim
in transactions which have permanently

X.

Edward Kelly :

degraded an otherwise great name ;
finally, as a pretended transmuter of
metals, who was only too leniently treated
by the emperor whom he deceived. For
example, the astrologer depicted by
Hudibras had read

‘‘ Dee’s prefaces before
The Devil, and Euclid o’er and o’er.

And all th’ intrigues ’twixt him and Kelly,
Lexas and th’ Emperour would tell ye.”

But to Doctor Dee, at least, this
is demonstrably unjust. This is the
verdict of posterity in so far as
it has concerned itself with the subject ;
it is the verdict of the biographical
dictionaries, who have faithfully tran-
scribed from one another, after the
easy method which prevails with bio-
graphical dictionaries when they deal
with magicians and seers, with alchemists
and other professors of mystic physics,
as, generally, with all the oracles of the
borderland ; and, in so far as it con-
cerns itself with borderlands, unerudite
public opinion has been led by the
erudite ignorance of the dictionaries.

Biographical Preface. xi.

Now, in offering for the first time to the
English reader the three very curious
treatises which constitute the chief liter-
ary remains of Edward Kelly, it is not
necessary, as it would be in fact without
reason, that the editor should accept an
indiscriminate brief for the defence of
the alchemist who wrote them. To the
collector of curiosities in science and
chases inouies in literature, the interest
which may attach to them will be unim-
paired by the mummeries or crimes of
their author. For the student of Her-
metic antiquities, it will become evident,
and he may already be aware, that the
value of the duo tractatus and their com-
plement is not that they are the work
of an adept, but that they comprehend
a careful digest or concensus of alchem-
ical philosophers, while the interest
which attaches to the man is created
by his possession for a period of the
two tinctures of alchemical philosophy,
and not in his ability to compose
them. At the same time, the adven-
tures and imprisonments of Kelly, with

xii. Edward Kelly :

his transitions from abject poverty to
sudden wealth, from a proscribed and
law hunted fugitive to a baron or
marshal of Bohemia, and then again to
disgrace and imprisonment, ending in
a death of violence, to say nothing of his
visions and transmutations, constitute
an astonishing narrative, and make up
the broad outlines of a life which would
be possible alone in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. Moreover, here,
as in so many other cases, the student
of transcendental history will hardly
need to be informed that the “skryer”
of Doctor Dee and the discoverer of
the so-called “ Book of Saint Dunstan ”
has been accredited with many iniquities
of which he does not seem to have been
guilty.

If it be permissible to set aside for
the moment the mere antiquarian inte-
rest in these remains of Edward Kelly,
and to exhibit a preferential attention
towards that point of view from which
the Hermetic student would be dis-
posed to regard them, it will be reason-

Biographical Preface. xiii.

able to affirm that the importance of
this alchemist’s history concentrates
entirely in his possession of the trans-
muting powders, and in the manner by
which he is said to have acquired them.
The other episodes of his life may be
treated with comparative brevity.

Edward Kelly appears to have been
born at Worcester, the event occurring,
according to Anthony a Wood,^ about
four o’clock in the afternoon on the first
day of August, 1555. This was in the
third year of Queen Mary’s reign. He
was educated in his native city until the
age of seventeen, when he is supposed
to have repaired to Oxford. The regis-
ters of that Universitv contain no record

«/

of any Edward Kelly having entered at
the period in question, and it is assumed
that his real name was Talbot. Three
persons bearing this designation were
entered at Gloucester Hall about this
time. Possibly the University records
have not been adequately searched, and

AthencB Oxoniensis, ed. 1813, pp. 639-643.

XIV.

Edward Kelly :

if not, the evidence for his sojourn at
Oxford is of a very slender character.*
If, beyond the difficulty that has been
mentioned, there are no other reasons
for supposing that he changed his name,
and none others seem forthcoming, there
is, perhaps, more reason to discredit
his university career than to accept the
theory of the alias. If he were at Ox-
ford, it would be only for a short period,
and he is said to have left abruptly.
Other narratives state that he was bred
as an apothecary, and in this way ac-
quired some skill in chemistry. It was
more probably the profession of his
father, of which he may have picked up
some knowledge in boyhood. After the
termination of his scholastic studies,
whether at Oxford or elsewhere, he
himself seems to have embraced the
law, and to have settled in London, or,
according to another account, at Lan-
caster, but possibly in both places. It

* The amanuensis of Thomas Allen (jemp. Wood), of
Gloucester Hall, said that Kelly spent some time in that
house.

Biographical Preface.

XV.

was in the latter certainly that his
troubles began. He was a skilful pen-
man, who had been at the pains to
acquaint himself with archaic English,
and, as a Worcester man, not im-
probably with Welsh, and by the help
of these accomplishments he was ac-
cused of producing forged title deeds
in the interests of a client. The in-
dictment is very vague, and does not
rest upon anything which can be termed
evidence. He is said, however, but
upon equally uncertain grounds, to have
been pilloried at Lancaster, and to have
been also deprived of his ears. There
is no doubt that he fell into grievous
trouble, for to his life’s end he was
always less or more in fear of English
law, and sometimes seems to have pre-
ferred a foreign prison to the uncertain
reception which was to be anticipated on
his return home. But that the penalty
which his biographers have meted out
to him, whether deserved or not by his
misdeeds, was in some way evaded,
it seems more reasonable to think. The

xvi. Edward Kelly ;

distinguished position which he held
subsequently at the Court of the Empe-
ror Rodolph, would have scarcely been
possible to a man who had lost his
ears. The credulity of royal person-
ages at the end of the seventeenth
century may have facilitated many im-
postures on- the part of the alchemists
whom they protected, but could scarcely
have extended to accepting the philo-
sophical illumination of an adept who
had been branded by law. The alterna-
tive story is, then, apparently preferable,
and this says that Kelly sought refuge
in Wales. Here it is exceedingly prob-
able that he adopted an assumed name,
but whether Talbot became Kelly or
whether Kelly merged for a moment
into Talbot, or some other designation,
is a mystery of modification in Alchemy
which the past is not likely to give up
In Wales he would seem to have em-
braced a nomadic life, staying at
obscure inns, and after a time he must
have worked his way down into the
neighbourhood of the historic abbey of

Biographical Preface. xvii.

Glastonbury.* * * § What occurred to him
here, what was destined, in fact, to be
the turning point in the life of this
fugitive, has been recited by more than
one of his biographers ; and if, in the
present narrative, it be based on the
record of the French scientific littdra-
teur, Louis Figuier, that is not because
his account is specially preferable, but
because it is nearest at the moment.f
He put up, among other places, at a
lonely hostelry in the mountains, and there
it came to pass that he was shewn an old
manuscript which no one in the village
could decipher. Kelly had good, if some-
what mournful reason to be well acquaint-
ed with the mysteries of ancient writing,^
and he saw at a glance not only that it
was in the old Welsh language,^ but

* It is about 35 miles from Glastonbury to the nearest
part of .South Wales.

+ V Alchitnie et les Alchitnisies. Troisifeme edition
Paris, 1860, p. 232, ei seq.

J The insinuation is that Edward Kelly, as above indi-
cated, had been concerned in the fraudulent manufacture of
ancient legal documents,

§ Outside M. Figuier’s imagination there does not
seem to be any reason for supposing that the manuscript
was in Welsh.

2 A

xviii. Edward Kelly :

that it treated of the transmutation of
metals. He made inquiries as to the
history of this bibliographical rarity, and
learned that its discovery was due to
one of those outbursts of religious fanat-
icism which were common enough in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. The sepul-
chre of a departed bishop interred in a
neighbouring church had been violated,
the zeal of the Protestant being not un-
mixed with the desire of obtaining hidden
treasures. However, the sacrilegious
act was only rewarded by the alchemi-
cal manuscript which the despoilers
could not read, and by two small ivory
caskets, containing respectively a red
and a white powder, which in their eyes
were equally useless. The receptacle
of the red powder was shattered in their
fury, and much of its contents were lost.
What remained of it, together with the
second casket and the accompanying-
document, they readily disposed of to
the innkeeper, who seems to have had
a hand in the discreditable transaction,
in exchange for a flagon of wine. The

Biographical Preface.

XIX.

manuscript was retained as a curiosity
to be exhibited to strangers frequenting
the hostelry ; the intact casket was a
plaything for the innkeeper’s children ;
the remnant of the red powder seems to
have remained by chance in its shattered
receptacle ; and it came to pass, in due
time, that Kelly, in his capacity as a
stranger, examined the entire treasure-
trove. If Kelly had begun life as an
apothecary, he had doubtless a smatter-
ing of chemistry, * and there would
have been few educated persons at that
period who, in connection with Alchemy,
had heard nothing of the red and white
tinctures which were the instruments of
the Magnum Opus. He knew enough
to be anxious to possess them, and for
the whole archaic collection he offered
one guinea to the innkeeper, who ac-
cepted these terms.

* Figuier observes that he was devoid of the most
elementary conception of chemistry or of transmutatory
philosophy, but then Figuier was a Frenchman and drew
largely upon those interior resources which economise
documentary research.

XX.

Edward Kelly :

Such is the narrative of the dis-
covery, stripped of a few elaborations,
which are due to Gallic insight. Now,
Nash,^*" who is responsible for the story
of the pillory, assigns no date for the
supposed mutilation of Edward Kelly,
but it may be regarded as having taken
place, if at all, about 1580. If the muti-
lation in question be rejected, the same
date will serve us as the commencement
of the Welsh wanderings. After he had
secured the Hermetic treasures his oc-
cupations for a time are uncertain ;
when he reappears it is in company
with Dr. John Dee. Figuier, still elabo-
rating upon the outlines of unfanciful
and ineffective biographers, recounts
how, being unable to make use of his
treasures, through his alleged ignorance
of chemistry, he had recourse to his old
friend Dee, wrote to him on the sub-
ject, received a favourable reply, and
forthwith betook himself to London.
Whether he wrote or not, there he was

* Ilistofy and Antiquities of Worcester, 2 vols., Lon-
don, 1781, etc., Fol.

Biographical Preface. xxi.

evidently established in the autumn of
1582. It is difficult to decide whether
this was a first acquaintance. Lenglet
du Fresnoy, who was fairly careful in
the collection of his data, states that
Kelly was really a notary of London,
and that Dee was his old neighbour and
friend.* They are supposed to have
set to work together, and in the month
of December, 1579, it is said, in the

* There is a very large mass of material in existence for
the life of Dr. Dee, and it has been so imperfectly investi-
gated that the biography of this singular man is still practi-
cilly unwritten. So far as it has been possible to examine
it for the purposes of this notice, it does not seem to afford
much assistance on this debatable point. The Autobio-
graphical Tracts of Dr. John Dee, Warden of the College of
Manchester, edited by Mr. James Crossley, were printed for
the Chetham Society in 1851, but they do not contain a
single reference to Edward Kelly, nor to any experiments in
Alchemy. In repudiating the magical practices which were
ascribed to him, he refers to certain “ false information
given in by one George Ferrys and Prideaux, that I endea-
voured by enchantments to destroy Queene Mary,” for which
he was imprisoned at Plampton Court, “ even in the weeke
next before the same Whitsuntide that her Majesty (z.f., Queen
Elizabeth, before her accession) was there prisoner also.”
There is also a tract occasioned by the accusation that he was
“a conjuror, a caller of devils, a great doer therein, and so
(as some would say) the arche conjuror of this whole king-
dom.” Concerning which, he says that it is ‘‘a damnable

xxii. Edward Kelly :

laboratory of a goldsmith, they accom-
plished a transmutation of metals which
proved the richness of Kelly’s tincture
to be one upon two hundred and
seventy-two thousand two hundred and
thirty; but, it is added, “they lost
much gold in experiments before they
knew the extent of its power.” If this
date can be accepted, Kelly was then
twenty-four years old, and his com-
panion was his senior by something like

slander, utterly untrue, in the whole, and in every worde
and part thereof : as (before the King of Kings) will appere
at the dreadfull day.” But, as Halliwell justly remarks,
the “ Compendious Rehearsall” was “written for an especial
purpose, for the perusal of royal commissioners, and he has.
of course, carefully avoided every allusion which could be
construed in an unfavourable light. In the other, however
(i.e., in the ‘ Private Diary ’), he tells us of his dreams,
talks of mysterious noises in his chamber, evil spirits, and
alludes to various secrets of occult philosophy in the spirit of
a true believer.” The “Private Diary of Dr. John Dee,
and the Catalogue of his Library of Manuscripts,” was
edited by James Orchard Halliwell, F. R.S., for the Cam-
den Society, in 1842. The name of Talbot is mentioned,
S.V., March 9th, 1582, and recurs once or twice further on,
but there seems no reason for identifying it with that of
Edward Kelly, whose initials are not found till November
22nd, 1582, when there is the following brief note: —
“ E. K. went to London, and so the next day conveied by
road toward Blakley, and within ten days to return.”

Biographical Preface. xxiii.

thirty years. But the dates are not
easy to reconcile at this period, and the
diaries of Dr. Dee make no mention
of the subject till several years have
elapsed.* There is naturally no reason
to doubt that they soon made experi-
ments with the powders, and as the
bona fides of Dr. Dee cannot be
seriously challenged through any of the
subsequent transactions, he must have
regarded the results as satisfactory ;
it is, further, evident from his own memo-
randa, made for his personal use, and
not designed for publication, that he
was not only convinced of the actuality
of Kelly’s transmutations, but that he
had formed a high estimate of his com-
panion’s proficiency in Alchemy, and
seems always to have received his com-
munications on this subject with grati-
tude and reverence.t But it would

* After September 2ist, 1583, there is a gap in the
“Private Diary,” which is resumed in July, 1586, and
presently relates a transmutation performed by Kelly during
their sojourn abroad.

t “ May 10, 1588. E. K. did open the great secret to
me, God be thanked.” Again: “Aug. 24, 1580. Vidi

XXIV.

Edward Kelly :

appear also that, both in England during
the: period in question, and afterwards
abroad, Dr. Dee was far more pro-
foundly and lastingly interested in the
mysteries of visions in the crystal than
in the accomplishment of the metallic
magnum opus. His references to Alche-
my are few and far between, but his
communications with angels and plane-
tary spirits, and indifferently with all
sorts and conditions of invisible intelli-
gences, were recorded in writing by
himself with the most scrupulous and
exhaustive fidelity. They were subse-
quently deciphered, arranged, and pub-
lished in a large folio volume ; and
constitute to this day not only the most
prolific source of information as to the
relations between himself and Kelly,
but, in spite of all modern marvels,
remain the most curious account extant
ill the English language of alleged in-
tercourse with the world of spirits. And,

divinam atjuani demonstratione magnifici aomini et amici
niei tncomparabilis, D. Ed. Kellei ante meridiem tertia hora."
Once more: “Dec. 14. Mr. Edward Kelly gave me the
water, earth, and all.”

Biographical Preface.

XXV.

whatever has been advanced to the con-
trary by sensational biographers like
Louis Figuier, elaborating with a view
to effect, it was not in the main as an
alchemist, but as a seer in the crystal
that Edward Kelly posed before the
doctor of Mortlake. It was also in that
capacity that he chiefly influenced his
companion. It is immaterial for the
purposes of this notice, which, as already
intimated, is not devised as an apology
for its subject, to determine whether
the visions of Edward Kelly were
genuine or not. In the present state of
psychological knowledge, imperfect as
it still is, it is, on the one hand, too
late to deny that a state of lucidity can
be frequently induced by the mediation
of crystals and similar transparent sub-
stances ; while it is evident, on the
other hand, from the history of the
subject, that beyond the bare fact and
.such possibilities as may be reasonably
attached to it, nothing of real moment
has resulted from any such experiments.
Edward Kelly may have lost his ears

XXVI.

Edwm'd Kelly :

for forgery, or he may have deserved
to be deprived of them, and he may
still have been a genuine clairvoyant,
for the faculty does not suppose an
advanced, or even tolerable, morality
in its possessor. He may equally have
been guiltless of any otherwise illegal
practices, and still he may have shame-
fully imposed upon his friend. There
is only one fact of importance for this
notice— that Edward Kelly, apparently
by no desert of his own, came into
possession of the two tinctures of Her-
metic philosophy. Convict or martyr,
seer or cheating conjuror, knave or saint,
matters nothing in comparison. He
may further have accounted for his pos-
session of the tinctures by a romantic
fiction, but this in itself is trivial. At
the same time, with regard to his
visions, it must be admitted that either
he was a clairvoyant of advanced grade,
or he was a man of most ingenious in-
vention.'^ Between the period of his

* Disraeli, in his “ Amenities of Literature,” observes
that ‘ the masquerade of his spiritual beings was most re-
markable for its fanciful minuteness. ”

Biog7'aphical Preface. xxvii.

alleged departure from Oxford and the
completion of his twenty-fifth year, he
has been accused of so many crimes,
not one of which could have been
effected without a considerable appren-
ticeship, that, assuming an extraordinary
capacity for misdeeds, it is really some-
what difficult to believe that he could
have accomplished so much in so short
a space of time. The list includes

necromancy, dealing with the devil, for-
gery (as already seen), and the uttering
of base coin.*

* In June, 1583, an attachment was issued against him
for coining, of which his companion declared him guiltless.
Whether this was a consequence of some of his miscarrying
experiments in Alchemy does not appear, but, in either case,
the charge would appear to have been unfounded, or it was not
pressed, for he does not seem to have suffered any subsequent
inconvenience by reason of it. The accusation of necromancy
may have had some foundation, and in this case, whatever
moral odium can attach to him on the subject, it goes some
way towards proving that in occult matters he acted in good
faith, and believed there was some efficacy in those magical
processes of which crystallomancy was a part. The original
source of the accusation appears to be John Weever’s “ Dis-
course of Ancient Funereal Monuments,” London, 1631,
fob, pp. 45, 46, and is to this effect, that he caused by his
incantations a poor man that had been buried in the yard
belonging to Law Church, near to Wotton-in-the-Dale, to
be taken out of his grave (meaning not the exhumation of

xxviii. Edward Kelly :

On the 2 1 St of September, 1583,
Edward Kelly and his patron left Eng-
land for the continent. Various reasons
have been assigned for this removal, as,
for example, that Kelly went in con-
tinual fear of his liberty and even his
life ; that they could not carry on their

the body but the evocation of the spirit of the deceased),
and to answer to such questions that he then proposed to
him.” An original letter to Wood signed “Anonymous
Philomusus,” and preserved among the Tanner MSS. in the
Bodleian Library, says that Weever’s authority was an ac-
complice of Kelly at the time of this transaction. As all
species of magic were then vulgarly regarded as of Satanic
origin, it is obvious, of course, that, from this standpoint,
Kelly had commerce with evil spirits. In this connection
there is one interesting citation from the “ Diary of Doctor
Dee.” “April 13, 1584, circa, 3 horam. After a short
request made by me to Christ for wisdom and verity to be
ministered by Nalvage {i.e., one of the spirits of the
crystal), he appeared and spake much to E. K., which he
expressed not to me, but at length confessed that he gave
him brotherly counsel to leave dealing as an idolater or for-
nicator against God, by asking counsel of such as he did.”
Thereupon “E.K. confessed that he had been dealing with
the devil,” In whatever sense this admission must be
understood, the kind of calumnies which it has occasioned
may be understood by a passage in “ Sibley’s Illustration of
the Occult Sciences,” the work of a profound believer in
astrology and magic.

“ Edward Kelly was also a famous magician, and the
companion and the associate of Dr. Dee, in most of his
magical explorations and exploits : having been brought

Biographical Preface. xxix.

alchemical experiments under the best
circumstances in their own country ; that
such operations were calculated to make
them notorious, and liable to the super-
stitious fury of the populace ; that Doctor
Dee, in particular, had been disappointed
of reasonably expected preferment. All

into unison with him (as the Doctor himself declares in the
preface to his work on the ministration of spirits) by media-
tion of the angel Uriel. But Doctor Dee was undoubtedly
deceived in his opinion that the spirits which ministered to
him were executing the Divine will, and were the messengers
and servants of the Deity. Throughout his writings on this
subject, he evidently considers them in this light ; which
is still more indisputably confirmed by the piety and devotion
he invariably observed at all times when these spirits had
intercourse with him. And further, when he found his coad-
jutor Kelly was degenerating into the lowest and worst
species of the magic art, for the purposes of fraud and
avaricious gain, he broke off all manner of connection with
him, and would never be seen in his company. But it is
believed the doctor, a little before his death, became sensible
that he had been imposed upon by these invisible agents,
and that all their pretence of acting under the auspices of
the angel Uriel, and for the honour and glory of God, was
hut mere hypocrisy and the delusion of the devil. Kelly,
being thus rejected and discountenanced by the Doctor,
betook himself to the most mean and vile practices of the
magic art ; in all of which pursuits money and the works
of the devil appear to have been his chief aim. Many
wicked and abominable transactions are recorded of him,
which were performed by witchcraft and the mediation of
infernal spirits; but nothing more apropos to the present sub-

XXX.

Edward Kelly :

of these causes may have contributed to
make their departure desirable, and they
may not have been actuated by any of
them. As to Dee, he enjoyed a con-
siderable share of Court favour, that of
royalty included, and there is no reason
to suppose that his journey was in search
of preferment, or that he contemplated

ject, than what is mentioned by Weaver in his ‘Funeral
Monuments.’ He there records that Kelly, the Magician,
with one Paul Waring, who acted as companion and associate
in all his conjurations, went together to the church-yard of
Walton Ledale, in the country of Lancaster, where they
had information of a person being interred, who was sup-
posed to have hidden or buried a considerable sum of money,
and to have died without disclosing to any person where it
was deposited. They entered the church-yard at exactly
twelve o’clock at night ; and having had the grave pointed
out to them the preceding day, they exorcised the spirit of
the deceased by magical spells and incantations, till it
appeared before them, and not only satisfied their wicked
desires and iniquities, but delivered several strange predic-
tions concerning persons in that neighbourhood, which were
literally and exactly fulfilled. It was vulgarly reported of
Kelly, that he outlived the time of his compact with the
devil, and was seized at midnight by some infernal spirits,
who carried him off in the sight of his own wife and children,
at the instant he was meditating a mischievous scheme
against the minister of his parish, with whom he was greatly
at enmity.” — This account is simply a tissue of falsehoods,
not only as regards the relations of Dee and Kelly, but the
place and manner of the alchemist’s death. Moreover, Kelly
does not appear to have had any issue.

Biographical Preface. xxxi.

a protracted absence, for he left his
library behind him in his cottage at
Mortlake His wife and his children
accompanied him, as well as the family
of Kelly, who also appears to have been
married, though at what period is un-
known. This considerable party was
completed by Lord Albert Alasko, a
Polish noble, who had sought and ob-
tained the familiar acquaintance of
Doctor Dee during a residence of a
considerable duration in England.'*
Whether he was interested in the alche-

* In the “Private Diary,” under date of May 1st,
there is the following entry : — Alberius Laski, Polonus,
Palatinus Scradensis, venit Londinem. Compare MS.
Donee 363, fol. 125. “The year of our Lord God, 1583,
the last day of April, the Duke or Prince of Vascos, in
Polonia, came to London, and was lodged at Winchester
House.” It was at half-past seven in the evening of May
13th, that Dee made his acquaintance. He became a fre-
quent and even continual visitor. The “Autobiographical
Tracts ” published by the Chetham Society contain the
following reference: — “Her Majesty (^An. 1583, ltdii
idtimo) being informed by the right honourable Earle of
Leicester, that whereas the same day in the morning he had
told me that his honour and the Lord Laski would dine with
me within two daies after, I confessed sincerely unto him,
that I was not able to prepare them a convenient dinner,
unless I should presently sell some of my plate or some of
my pewter for it, etc.”

xxxii. Edward Kelly:

mical experiments of the two Hermetic
confederates does not appear from the
evidence, though it may be reasonably
assumed. But, like Dee himself, he was
profoundly impressed by the spiritual
revelations in the crystal, and the
records exhibit him as a regular and
active participator in the clairvoyant
seances. The entire journey would seem
to have been undertaken at the instance
of Lord Albert Alasko, who had invited
them to visit him at his castle in the
neighbourhood of Cracovia. Hostile
biographers like Figuier have therefore
represented him as the dupe of the two
colleagues, whom they plundered with-
out mercy, with whom they outstayed
their welcome, and were at last shaken
off, not without great difficulty, when
their victim could tolerate them no
longer, and when he was practically
ruined by their rapacity. For all this
there is not a particle of evidence. It
is certain that they did not reach
Cracovia till March 13th, 1584. They
had scarcely arrived in the north of

Biographical Preface. xxxiii.

Germany before Doctor Dee had in-
telligence of the destruction of his
library at Mortlake, by the fury of a
fanatical mob, who took advantage of
the wizard’s absence to revenge them-
selves on his effects. The sequestration
of his rents and his property seems to
have followed quickly on this act of
vandalism. During this period, as
already seen, there is a gap in the
“ Private Diary,” and it is only imper-
fectly supplied by the “True and Faith-
ful Relation,” which is devoted to the
visions in the crystal. There is no
record of the circumstances under which
they parted from the Polish noble, but
the date of their departure from Cra-
covia is fixed by the “Faithful Relation”
as the first day of August, 1584, new
style. There is evidence to shew that,
in common with Doctor Dee, he had ex-
perienced much from the unreasoning
violence of Edward Kelly’s temper ;
but there is no evidence that they parted
unpleasantly. The visions and revela-
tions in the crystal continued abroad as

3 A

xxxiv. Edward Kelly :

at home with the utmost regularity and
persistence, doing credit as before either
to the marvellous clairvoyance of the
seer, or to the variety of his imaginative
resources, but destined ere long to be
stained with one foul record. It is
certain, on the other hand, that during
this period the alchemical experiments
which have been assumed to be the
object of their journey do not appear to
have been prosecuted. It is even
affirmed that, in spite the Donum Dei,
the two families were sometimes in
great poverty. But at length they re-
paired to Prague, reaching that city
seven days after their departure from
Cracovia. There all men talked of
Alchemy, numbers practised it, half
the world credited the marvels con-
cerning it, and supposed processes were
more numerous than even the adepts
themselves. Inevitably, the possessor
of the Bishop’s powder, obtained at
the digging in Wales, must have been
calculated to shine in this city of
hierophants, and Edward Kelly came

Biographical Preface. xxxv.

among them like that artist Elias fore-
told years previously by Paracelsus, and
still expected by his disciples. Within
a very short time all Prague was in
transport, for the adept Kelly was trans-
muting everywhere, as, for example, at
the house of Thaddaeus de Hazek, the
imperial physician, and even initiating
disciples like Nicholas Barnaud and the
Marshal of Rosenberg in the process, if
not in the secret. Many authorities,
including the great name of Gassendus,
have been cited in support of these pro-
digal transmutations, but some who have
been quoted either utter an uncertain
note or are altogether silent. * However
this may be, the whole party became
exceedingly and suddenly affluent, great
in their extravagance, and magnificent
in their retinues. They were invited to

* The only discoverable testimony of Gassendus is con-
tained in De Rebus Terrenis Inanimis, Lib. III., c. VI.,
Lugaurd Batavorum, fob 1658, vol. 2, p. 143. “ Deinde

manifesta sunt genera varia imposturarum, quibus versutio-
res (umivenduli illudere solent non modo simplicioribus, sed
nonullis etiam ex iis, qui se putant oculatories (he has
already spoken of the credulity of believers, more especially
with regard to the forgeries of alchemical literature), dum

XXXVI.

Edward Kelly :

the Court of the Emperor Rodolph II.,
King- of Hungary and Bohemia, and
they repaired thither, Kelly to dazzle
that potentate by his transmutations,
and to be made a marshal m conse-
quence. Doctor Dee, who knew nothing
of Alchemy, remained in comparative
retirement,- while his companion multi-
plied his extravagances and the enemies
of his sudden success. As time went on,
the philosopher and the alchemist be-
came mutually intolerable, and there was
a distinct rupture between them, the ex-
planation of which must be sought in the
profligacy of the younger man. In April,
15S7, while they were at Trobona, a
naked woman, in an apparition described
by Kelly, directed the ‘ Skryer ’ and his
master to use “their two wives in com-
mon.” Kelly convinced Dee of bona

nempe non satis attendunt ad conditionem aut operantis,
aut manus opus peragentis, etc., etc.” .Such is the preface
to the reference : — “ obque asservatam, ut memorant, Pragse
intra Thaddsei Haggicii sedeis Mercurii libram in aurum con-
versam, infusa a Kelleio Anglo unica liquoris rubicun-
dissima guttula, cujus adhus vestigium sit, qua parte facta
fuit infusio.” This is hardly a testimony of Gassendus.

Biographical Preface. xxxvii.

Jides of the spirit, and after some hesita-
tion, a solemn covenant was drawn up
in accordance with the direction be-
tween Doctor Dee, Kelly, Jane Dee,
and Joan Kelly, “ as the third part of
the ‘Faithful Relation ’ testifies.”

Meanwhile the powder, diminished
by excessive projection, became ex-
hausted ; it was squandered still further
in futile attempts to increase it ; and
when the Emperor commanded his guest
to produce it in a becoming quantity,
all experiments proved failures. Yet
Kelly had boasted that he was an adept;
he had everywhere paraded his powers ;
he was not the mere heir of the Stone
— he was an illuminated and proficient
master. The Emperor believed all this,
and he believed it even to the end ; the
impotence of the exhausted alchemist
was attributed to obstinacy, and the
guest was changed into a prisoner. He

. is said to have been confined in a dun-
geon of the castle of Zobeslau. To
regain his liberty he promised to manu-
facture the Stone, on condition that he

xxxviii. Edward Kelly :

returned to Prague and took counsel
with Dr. Dee. To that city he was
consequently permitted to go back, but
his house was guarded, and as fresh
experiments in the composition of a
transmuting powder were abortive as
ever, the alchemist, seized with rage,
made a futile attempt to escape, which
ended in the murder of one of his
guards.

A second imprisonment, this time
in the castle of Zerner, followed his
violence. Doctor Dee returned alone
to England, but at a date which con-
flicts with many alleged incidents in
the life of his seer. The two confede-
rates seem to have parted amicably, and
they corresponded after their separa-
tion.* At the instance of the philosopher
of Mortlake, Queen Elizabeth claimed
the alchemist as her subject, but the

* There seems little doubt that Dr. Dee held the
memory of Kelly in something like affection. Long after
his return to England, under date March l8, 159$, there is
this entry in one of his diaries : “Mr. Francis Garland came
this morning to visit me, and had much talk with me of Sir
Edward Kelly.”

Biographical Preface. xxxix.

Emperor excused himself from releasing-
him on the ground of the homicide.
The second imprisonment of Kelly,
according to accepted dates, lasted till
the year 1597, when he attempted to
escape by a rope, but, falling from a
considerable height, sustained such in-
juries as resulted in his death at the age
of forty-two.-^ His treatise on the
“ Stone of the Philosophers ” was the
product of his enforced leisure, but it
did not appease his captor. The other
tracts contained in the present volume
may have been earlier compositions. As
previous to his acquaintance with Kelly
Dr. Dee had no transactions in Alche-
my, so, after his return to England till
his own death in the year 1608, he
eschewed experiments which had in-
volved his clairvoyant in misery, and

* ’‘John Weaver says that Queen Elizabeth sent, very
secretly, Captain Peter Gwinne, with some others, to per-
suade Kelly to return to his native country. It is then said
that attempting to escape from a wall of his own house at
Prague, he fell, etc. . . . His house is said to bear his

name to this day, and was once an old sanctuary.” — Athene^
Oxoniensis.

xl.

Edward Kelly :

was content to be Warden of Man-
chester, to be persecuted by the Fellows
of the College, and to suffer other in-
dignities with the patience of an en-
lightened philosopher.

II.

The Book of St. Dunstan.

The student of alchemical litera-
ture will naturally be curious to know
whether the mysterious manuscript of
Glastonbury has been pretended to have
survived. Tradition has ascribed to it
the name which heads this section, and
there is the following evidence, which
must be taken with all faults, to account
for it. The abbey of Glastonbury was
founded by Saint Dunstan, but he does
not appear to have been buried there,
despite the supposed translation of
his relics from Canterbury. Yet it
must be inferred from the tradition
that the remains of the disinterred
bishop were those of the saint him-
self. Saint Dunstan was supposed to

Biographical Preface.

xli.

have been an alchemist, and has been
regarded as the patron of the gold-
smiths; but an anonymous compiler in
manuscript of the seventeenth century
affirms that he “ had no other elixir or
Philosopher’s Stone than the gold and
silver which, by the benefit of fishing,
was obtained, whereby the kingdom’s
plate and bullion was procured. For
the advancement of the fishing trade, he
did advise that three fish days be kept
in every week, which caused also more
abstinence, and hence the proverb that
St. Dunstan took the devil by the nose
by his pincers.” The “ Book of St.
Dunstan ” is mentioned occasionally in
the diaries of Dr. Dee, in connection
with the “powder found at the digging
in England,” and in such a way as to
make it a reasonable inference that this
name was borne by the Glastonbury
manuscript. A work of the same title
is the subject of continual reference by
the son of the philosopher of Mortlake,
Arthur Dee, especially in his Fasciculus
Chemicus. The British Museum contains

xlii.

Edzvard Kelly :

a Latin copy in manuscript of another
treatise by the same author, under the
title of Area Arcanorum, which is fol-
lowed by the Tractatus Maximi Domini
Dunstani, Episcopi Cantuariensis, veri
philosophi, de Lapide Philosophico. Sev-
eral extant manuscripts, both in Latin
and English', widely at variance in their
dates and in the nature of their contents,
are, however, attributed to St. Dunstan.
The first impression printed at Cassel in
1649. A few ignorant critics have gone
so far as to regard Kelly’s own treatise
as the genuine Glastonbury manuscript.
Others, discountenancing the connection
with the saint, have been inclined to
consider two metrical treatises, which
are included by Elias Ashmole in the
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, as
constituting the original work, though
not, of course, in the original form or
language. There may be little evidence
in support of this hypothesis, but it does
not exceed possibility ; if rejected, the
verses in question may be safely re-
garded as additional literary remains of

Biographical Preface. xliii.

Edward Kelly ; in either case, they
demand a place here.

SIR EDWARD KELLE’S WORK,

All you that faine philosophers would be,

And night and day in Geber’s kitchen broyle.
Wasting the chipps of ancient Hermes’ Tree,
Weening to turn them to a precious oyle.

The more you worke the more you loose and
spoile ;

To you, I say, how learned soever you be.

Go burne your Bookes and come and learne of
me.

Although to my one Booke you have red tenn.
That’s not enough, for I have heard it said
The greatest clarkes are not the wisest men :

A lion once a silly mouse obey’d.

In my good will so hold yourselves appaid.
And though I write not halfe so sweete as
Tully,

Yet shall you finde I trace the stepps of Lully.

Yt doth you good to thinke how your desire
And self-conceit doth warrantize vaine hope ;
You spare no cost, you want no coals for fier.
You know the vertues of the Elitrope ;

You thinke yourselves farr richer than the
pope ;

What thinge hath being either high or low
But their materia prima you do know.

xliv.

Edward Kelly :

Elixir vitae and the precious Stone

You know as well as how to make an apple ;
If ’te come to the workinge then let you alone
You know the coullers black, brown, bay,
and dapple ;

Controwle you once then you begin to fraple.
Swearing and saying, what a fellow is this ?
Yet still you worke, but ever worke amisse.

No, no, my friends, it is not vauntinge words.
Nor mighty' oaths that gaines that sacred
skill ;

It Is obteined by grace and not by swords.

Nor by greate reading, nor by long sitting still.
Nor fond conceit, nor working all by will.
But, as I said, by grace it is obteined ;

Seek grace therefore, let folly be refrained.

It is no costly thing I you assure

That doth beget Magnesia in hir kind ;

Yet is hir selfe by leprosie made pure,

Hir eyes be cleerer being first made blind.
And he that can earth’s fastnes first unbind
Shall quickly know that I the truth have tould
Of sweete Magnesia, wife to purest gold.

Now what Is meant by man and wife is this.
Agent and patient, yet not two but one.

Even as was Eva Adam’s wife I wisse.

Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone —
Such is the unionhood of our precious Stone ;
As Adam slept untill his wife was made.

Even so our Stone ; there can no more be said.

Biographical Preface. xlv.

By this you se how thus it came to pass

That first was man, and woman then of him ;
Thus Adam here as first and cheefest was,

And still remained a man of perfect limme ;
Then man and wife were joyned together
trimme.

And each in love to other straight addressed
them.

And did increase their kind when God had
blessed them.

Even so the man our Stone is laid to sleepe,
Until such time his wife be fully wrought ;
Then he awakes, and joyfully doth keep

His new made spouse which he so dearely
bought ;

And when to such perfection they be brought,
Rejoyce the beauty of so fair a bride.

Whose worth is more than halfe the world
beside.

I doubte as yet you hardly understand
What man or wife doth truly signifie,

And yet I know you beare your selves in hand
That out of doubt it Sulpher is and Mercury;
And so it is, but not the common certeinly ;
But Mercury essentiall is trewly the trew wife
That kills her selfe to bring her child to life.

For first and formest she receives the man.

Her perfect love doth make her soone con-
ceive,

Then doth she strive with all the force she can.

xlvi.

Edward Kelly:

In spite of love, of life him to bereave,

Which being done, then will she never leave.
But labour kindly like a loving wife
Untill againe she him have brought to life.

Then he againe, her kindness to requite.

Upon her head doth set a crowne of glory,
And to her praise he poems doth indite.

Whose poems make each poet write a story.
And that she slew him then she is not sorry.
For he by vertue of his loving wife
Not only lives but also giveth life.

But here I wish you rightly understand

How here he makes his concubine his wife.
Which if you know not, do not take in hand
This worke, which unto fooles is nothing rife.
And look you make attonement where is
strife ;

Then strip the man into his shirt of tishew.

And her out of her smock to ingender yssue.

To tell you troath he wanteth for no wives.

In land or sea, in water, air, or fire.

Without their deaths he waieth not their lives.
Except they live he wants his chief desire ;
He binds them prentice to the rightest dier.
And when they once all sorrowes have abidden.
Then find they joyes which from them first
were hidden.

For then they finde the joy of sweet encrease ;
They bring forth children beautifull to sight,

Biographical Preface.

xlvii.

The which are able prisners to release,

And to the darkest bodyes give true light,
Their heavenly tincture is of such great
might ;

Oh ! he that can but light on such a treasure.
Who would not think his joyes were out of
measure ?

Now by this question I shall quickly know
If you can tell which is his wife indeede —

Is she quick footed, fair faced, yea or no ?
Flying or fixed, as you in bookes do reade ?
Is she to be fed or else doth she feed ?
Wherein doth she joy, where’s her habitation ?
Heavenly or earthly, or of a strange nation ?

What is she, poore ? or is she of any wealth ?
Bravely of her attyre, or meane in her
apparrell ?

Or is she sick? or is she In perfect health ?
Mild of her nature ? or is she given to
quarred s

Is she a glutton ? or loves she the barrell ?
If any one of these you name her for to be.

You know not his wife, nor ever did her see.

And that will I prove to you by good reason.
That truly noe one of all these is she ;

This is a question to you that is geason ;

And yet some parte of them all she must be :
Why then, some parte is not all you may see.
Therefore the true wife which I doe mean
Of all these contraries is the meane betweene.

xlviii.

Edward Kelly :

As meale and water joyned both together
Is neither meale nor water now but dow,
Which being baked is dow nor water neither :
Nor any more will each from other goe ;

The meane betweene is wife, our wife, even so.
And in this hidden point our seacret lyes —

It is enough, few words content the wise.

Now by this simile heere I do reveale
A mighty seacret, if you marke it well ;

Call mercury water, imagine sulphur meale.
What meale I meane I hope the wise can tell ;
Bake them by craft, make them together
dwell.

And in your working make not too much hast,
For wife is not the while she is in paste.

This lesson learn’d, now give me leave to play,
I shall the fitter be to learne another.

My mind is turn’d cleane cam another way ;

I do not love sweete secret thoughts to
smother —

It is a child you know that makes a mother,
Sith so it is then we must have a childe.

Or else of motherhood we are beguil’d.

What will you say if I a wonder tell you.

And prove the mother is child and mother
too ?

Do you not thinke I goe about to sell you
A bargaine in sport as some are wont to do ?
Is’t possible the mother to weare her infant’s
shoe ?

Biographical Preface. xlix.

In faith it is in our philosophy,

As I will prove by reason by and by.

Ripley doth bid you take it for no scorne

With patience to attend the true conjunction,
For, saith he, in the aire our child is born.
There he receiveth the holy unction.

Also with it a heavenly function,

For after death reviv’d again to lyfe.

This all in all, both husband, child, and wife.

Whilst all is earth conception it is termed.

And putrefaction tyme of lying in ;

Perfect conjunction (by artes-men is affirm’d)
The woman’s childing where doth all ioy begin :
Who knows not this his witts are very thin ;
When she is strong and shineth fair and bright
She’s tearmed the wife most beautifull to sight.

Loe ; thus you see that you are not beguil’d !

For, if you mark it, I have proved by reason
How both is one the mother and the child.
Conception, breeding, childing every season ;
I have declared to you without all treason.

Or any false ambiguous word at all.

And hewn you worke, then find it true you shall.

This is that Mercury essentiall truly.

Which is the principall of the Stone materiall.
And not those crude amalgames begun newly —
These are but Mercuries superficial! ;

This is that menstrue of perfect tinctorial ;
This is most truly that one thing
Out of the which all profitt must springe.

4 A

1.

Edward Kelly :

If this content you not, abide displeas’d for me,
For I have done. If reason takes no place,
What can be said, but that there doubts will
be,

Do what one can, where folly wins the race ;
Let it suffice this is the perfect base.

Which is the Stone that must dissolved be :
How that is done I will declare to thee.

This is the Stone that Ripley bidds you take
(For untill thus it be it is no stone) :

Be ruled by me, my councell not forsake.

And he commands, let crudities alone.

If thou have grace to keep thee free from
moan.

Then stick to this, let phansey not o’resway thee.
Let reason rule, for phansey will betray thee.

Take thou this Stone, this wife, this child, this
all.

Which will be gummous, crumbling, silken,
soft ;

Upon a glasse or porphire beat it small.

And, as you grinde, with Mercury feed it oft.
But not so much that Mercury swim aloft.
But equal parts, nipt up their seed to save ;
Then each in other are buried within their grave.

When thus and there you have it, as is said,
Worke in all points as Nature wrought at first.
For blacknes had thow needest not be afraid,

It wil be white, then thou art past the worst.
Except thou breake thy glass and be accurst ;

Biographical Preface.

li.

But if through blacknes thou to whitenes march,
Then it will be both white and soft as starch.

This very place is cal’d by many names —

As imbibition, feeding, sublimation,

Clyming high mountaines, also children's games,
And rightly it is termed exaltation.

When all is nothing else but circulation
Of the foure elements, whatsoere fooles clatter.
Which is done by heate upon forme and matter.

Earth is the lowest element of all,

Which black is exalted into water ;

Then no more earth but water we it call,
Although it seeme a black earthy matter,

And in black dust all about will scatter ;

Yet when soe high as to water it hath clym’d
Then it is truly said to be sublym’d.

When this black masse again is become white,
Both in and out, like snow, and shining faire,
Then this child, this wife, this heaven so bright.
This water earth sublimed into aire.

When there it is, it further will prepare
It selfe into the element of fire ;

Then give God thankes for granting thy desire.

This black, this white, doe we call seperation,
Which is not manuall but elementall ;

It is no crude mercuriall sublimation.

But Nature's true worke consubstantiall ;
The white is called conjunction naturall,
Secret and perfect conjunction, not grosse.
Which bringeth profit, all other losse.

1.

Edward Kelly :

When thrice yee have turned this wheele about,
Feeding and working it as I have said,

Then will it flow like wax without doubt.
Giving a tincture that will not vade.

Abiding all tryalls that can be made ;

If wisely project you can and keepe free.

Both profitt and creditt to you it wil be.

Your medicine flxed and perfectly flowing.
White you must thinke will whitenes increase.
So red bege'ts red, as seede in the sowing
Begetteth his like, or as kind doth in beasse.
And fire must be the true maker of peace.
For white or red ferment your medicine aug-
menteth,

And perfectly tinckteth and soone it relenteth.

That is to say, your medicine ended.

If white, melt downe silver and thereon
project it :

If red, melt downe sol, for so it is intended,
Like unto like, in no wise reject it.

And out of the purest looke you elect it :
Medicine one part upon ferment ten —

That one on one thousand of Jupiter then.

Your Jupiter standing red hot on the fyre.

So soon as your medicine upon him is cast,
Presently standeth so hard as a wyre.

For then he is fixed and melteth by blast,
And of all your working this is the last ;
Then let it by test or strong water be tryde,
The best gold and silver no better shall bide.

Biographical Preface.

liii.

Mercury crude in a crucible heated

Presently hardeneth like silver anealed,

And in the high throwne of Luna is seated.
Silver or gold as medicine hath sealed,

And thus our greate secret I have reveled,
Which divers have seene, and myself have
wrought

And dearly I prize it, yet give it for nought.

Finis. — E.K.

SIR ED. KELLEY CONCERNING THE
PHILOSOPHER’S STONE.

Written to his especiall good freind, G. S. Gent.

The heavenly cope hath in him nature’s fower —
Two hidden, but the rest to sight appeare :
Wherein the spermes of all the bodies lower
Most secrett are, yett spring forth once a yeare ;
And as the earth with water, authors are.

So of his parte is drines end of care.

No flood soe great as that which floweth still,
Nothing more fixt than earth digested thrise,
No winde so fresh as when it serveth will.

No profitt more, then keepe in, and be wise ;
No better happ, then drie up aire to dust.

For then thou maist leave of, and sleepe thy
lust.

liv. Edward Kelly :

Yett will I warne thee, least thou chaunce to
faile,

Sublyme thine earth with stinkeing water erst ;
Then in a place where Phoebus onely tayle
Is seene att midday, see thou mingle best ;

For nothing shineth that doth want his light.
Nor doubleth beames unless it first be bright.

Lett no man lead unless he know the way
That wise men teach, or Adrop leadeth in.
Whereof the first is large and easiest pray.

The other hard and meane but to begin ;

For surely these and no one more is found
Wherein Appollo will his harp-strings sound.

Example learne of God that plaste the skyes.
Reflecting virtues from and t’every poynt.

In which the mover wherein all things lyes
Doth hold the vertues all in every joynt,

And therefore essence fiift may well be said,
Conteining all and yett himselfe a maid

Remember also how the Gods began.

And by discent who was to each the syre ;

Then learne their lives and kingdomes if you
can.

Their manners eke, with all their whole attire.
Which if thou do, and know to what effect.
The learned Sopheis will thee not reject.

If this my doctrine bend not with thy brayne,
Then say I nothing though I said too much ;
Of truth ’tis good will moved me, not gaine.

Biographical Preface.

Iv.

To write these lynes, yett write I not to such
As catch at crabs when better fruits appear,
And what to chuse at fittest time of yeare.

Thou maist (my friend) say, what is this for
lore ?

I answer such as auncient physicke taught.

And though thou read a thousand bookes before,
Yet in respect of this they teach thee naught :
Thou mayst likewise be blind and call me
foole.

Yet shall these rules for ever praise their
schoole.

To these very curious specimens of
metrical Alchemy it will perhaps be of
interest to add one of the shorter tracts
which have been attributed to Saint
Dunstan. The selection of the following-
experiments has been governed only by
considerations of brevity.

SAINT DUNSTAN OF THE STONE OF
THE PHILOSOPHERS.

I.

Take of the best red transparent ore of
gold as much as you can have, and drive its
spirit from it through a retort ; this is the Azoth

Ivi.

Edward Kelly :

and the Acetum of the Philosophers, from its
proper minera, which openeth radically Sol
that is prepared.

II.

Take the minera of Venus or Saturn, and
drive their spirits in a retort ; each of these
dissolveth gold radically, after its purification.

III.

Take pulverised ore of Saturn, or vulgar
Saturn calcined ; extract its salt with Acetum
or its antinae (? anima) ; purify it in the best
manner, that it may be transparent as crystal,
and sweet as honey, and be fluid in heat like
wax, and brittle when cold. This is the tree
which is cut off, of unwholesome fruits, on
which must be inoculated the twigs of Sol.

IV.

Take of that earth which lieth waste in the
field, found everywhere in moorish grounds,
into which the astrals ejaculate their opera-
tions, being adorned with all manner of
colours, appearing like a rainbow ; extract
from it its purest and subtilest. This is the
universal menstruum for all ; and is all in all.

V.

Take of the ore of Sol and Mercury a like
quantity ; grind each very well ; pour on it the
spirit of Mercury, that it stand over three
fingers deep. Dissolve and digest it in a
gentle warmth.

Biographical Preface. Ivii

VI.

Take of the best vitriol, or of the vitriol of
Venus ; drive their spirits in a retort, white and
red. With this red spirit, being rectified and
sweetened, you may ferment and imbibe the
subtle gold calx, and with the white spirit you
may dissolve it after it hath been purified.

VII.

Take quick Mercury ; purify and dissolve
it so long in alcolisated spirit of wine, till its
impurity be separated from it, and become into
its extreme, transparent, easy, fluid essence,
like unto the white gluten of the eagle, and
capable to receive the blood of the Red Lion.

VIII.

Extract the salt of the crude and white
calcined tartar ; purify and clarify it often,
till it be as bright as the tear of the eye, and
can be brought no higher ; therewith you may
sharpen its own spirit of wine, which dissolveth
Sol and Lune.

IX.

Take of the rank poisonous matter or
stone, called kerg swaden, exuviae, or husk of
the metals ; drive its spirit very circumspectly ;
receive it so that it may turn unto water ; it
reduceth all metals to a potableness.

X.

Take of the air or heavenly dew, being well
purified, ten parts, and of subtle gold calx one

Iviii. Edward Kelly :

part ; set it in digestion, dissolve, and coagu-
late it.

XI.

Take the urine of a wholesome man, that
drank merely wine ; make of it, according to
art, the salt of microcosm ; purify it very well,
which doth so much acuate the spirit of wine
that it dissolveth Sol in a moment.

XII.

Take of the best ore of gold ; pulverise it
very well ; seal it with Hermes his seal ; set it
so long into the vaporous fire till you see it
spring up into a white and red rose.

XIII.

This last experiment he calleth the Light.
Take, in the name of the Lord, of Hungarish
gold, which hath been cast thrice through
antimony and hath been laminated most thinly,
as much of it as you will, and make with quick
Mercury an amalgam ; then calcine it most
subtily, with flowers of sulphur and spirit of
wine burnt, so often till there remaineth a
subtle gold calx of a purple colour. Take one
part of it, and two parts of the above mentioned
red matter ; grind it very well together for an
hour on a warmed marble ; then cement and
calcine well by degrees for three hours in a
circle fire. This work must be iterated three
times ; then pour on it of the best rectified
spirit, that it stand over it three fingers deep ;

Biographical Preface.

lix.

set it in a gentle and warm digestion, for six
days to be extracted ; then the spirit of wine
will be tinged as deep as blood ; cant off that
tincture, and pour on another as long as it will
tinge it ; put all these tinged spirits of wine
into a vial so that the fourth part only be filled,
and seal it hermetically ; set it on the vaporous
fire of the first degree ; let it be of that heat as
hot as the sun shineth in July; let it stand
thus for forty days — then you shall obtain your
wish.

The author recommendeth this last ex-
periment very highly, affirming upon his
experimental practice that this Aurum Potabile
is the highest medicine next unto the universal,
and, being taken in appropriated vehicles,
cureth all diseases without causing any pains
at all.

Item. — With this Aurum Potabile is Anti-
mony prepared, so that it purgeth only down-
ward, and carrieth forth all ill humours without
molestation, and is called the purging gold.

It is prepared also by the aid of antimony
into a diaphoretic gold, to expell by sweating
all malignant humours ; and Mercurius Vitae
is made also with this Potable Gold (if it be
kept in a long digestion) ; their dose is accord-
ing to the quality of the person.

lx. Edward Kelly :

III.

The Rosicructans and Doctor Dee.

It is evident from the first section
of this notice that Doctor Dee has been
popularly regarded as an alchemist
with about as much reason as he has
also been regarded as a magician. No
doubt he knew something of chemistry
before he was acquainted with Kelly,
and we have seen that he conducted a
phenomenal series of experiments in
artificial lucidity through the mediation
of his celebrated crystal ; but he was
not an alchemist on the one hand, nor
a necromancer and a dealer with devils
on the other. He was actually a learned
mathematical philosopher, who was to
some extent absorbed by the physics
and metaphysics of the Hermetic tra-
dition. In particular, he wrote nothing
on Alchemy, and it is necessary to
accentuate this point, because a hypo-
thesis has been recently put forward
which it will not be unreasonable to
dispose of in this place. It has been

Biographical Preface. Ixi.

advanced that Doctor Dee was in reality
the founder and head of the mysterious
Rosicrucian Fraternity, which publicly
manifested its existence some twenty
years after the death of Edward Kelly,
but claimed to have been previously in-
corporated. Could the philosopher of
Mortlake establish his claim to this dis-
tinction, it is reasonably clear that his
companion must divide with him the
honours of having originated one of the
most curious historical mysteries. Now,
it is well known that, setting aside the
imaginative persons who persuade them-
selves that the Rosicrucians, like the
Masonic Brotherhood, can be traced to
the period of the Flood, and have dis-
seminated the wild and unaccountable
through all ages and in all countries —
setting these aside, it is tolerably well
known that investigators of the Rosicru-
cian mystery have cast about them on
all sides for some one on whom they
could father it. Few mystics of the
period have consequently escaped their
suspicion. Till recently Dr. Dee —

Ixii.

Edward Kelly :

whether from unsavoury associations,
or because he was a little too early —
has enjoyed complete immunity ; his
turn, however, has arrived, and for a
moment it certainly seemed that he was
the responsible party. Among- the un-
published writings of Doctor Dee, some
of his biographers have included a
manuscript which is preserved in the
library of the British Museum, and is
devoted to the elucidation of certain
Rosicrucian arcana. It has been in-
cluded on the faith of the manuscript,
which claims to be his composition, but
the biographers knew nothing of the
Rosicrucian problem, and it passed with-
out examination or challenge. Now-a-
days, however, people are sufficiently
instructed to be aware that if this
manuscript must really be ascribed to
the author of Monas Hieroglyphica,
then the Rosicrucians were distinctly in
evidence years before the issue of their
manifestoes, and they have not unnatu-
rally concluded that it is to Dee, as the
first exponent of their doctrines, recourse

Biographical Preface. Ixiii.

must be had as a likely founder of the
Fraternity, and this, in fact, is the
latest hypothesis by which it is sought
to account for them. The manuscript
consists of 501 folios, beautifully written,
and illustrated with a few alchemical
symbols, Hermetic seals, etc. The
slightest examination would shew that
it is, at least, not an autograph, for the
floriated title contains in a scroll the
date March 12th, 17 13."^ Still it might
not incredibly be regarded as a tran-
script of an original that has been lost ;
and the criticism which alone could
break down this assumption and make
evident the imposition which has been
practised, would involve a more than
common acquaintance with Rosicrucian
and alchemical literature. The work is
divided into three parts, of which the
first is alchemical and medical. It de-
scribes the Rosicrucians as without

* There is no separate title page. On the right hand of
the upper margin is the motto, Qui vult secrela scire, debet
secreta secrete custodire, and on the left, “ The First Sheet of
Doctor Dee,” which heading continues throughout the first
part, a new pagination beginning with the second division.

Ixiv.

Edward Kelly:

doubt the wisest of “nations,” and
affirms that their contemplative order
has “ presented to the world angels,
spirits, planets, and mettals, with the
times in astronomy and geomancy to
prepare and unite them telesmatically.”
It quotes Sendivogius and Ripley, Sir
Christopher -Heydon, etc. On page 201
there is a “Process upon the Philosophi-
cal work of Vitriol,” with the following
marginal note; — “This process Doctor
Dee had from Doctor R. set down in a
letter, Oct. 19, 1605.” There is nothing
in the text to indicate that it is com-
municated matter. It is written, like
the rest of the work, mainly in the first
person, but lapsing into plurals and
imperatives. The references ascribing
the entire treatise to Doctor Dee are
wholly marginal until folio 352 (b),
where the following occurs “ To
conclude these secrets, I shall here in-
sert Doctor John Frederick Helvetius’
Letter to Doctor Dee. How in lesse
than a quarter of an hour by ye smallest
proportion of the Philosopher’s Stone, a

Biographical Preface.

Ixv.

great piece of common lead was totally
transmuted into the purest transplen-
dent gold. By Elias Artista.” But the
Elias Artista in question was the myste-
rious adept who imparted the powder of
projection to Helvetius.* The second
part of the manuscript contains an
alphabetical explanation of certain words
hard to be understood, which occur in
the writings of Doctor Dee. The third