favourite, was sent to consult the doctor as to the aspect of the
stars, that they might fix on an auspicious day for celebrating her
coronation. Some years after we find him again on the continent; and
in 1571, being taken ill at Louvaine, we are told the queen sent over
two physicians to accomplish his cure. Elizabeth afterwards visited
him at his house at Mortlake, that she might view his magazine of
mathematical instruments and curiosities; and about this time employed
him to defend her title to countries discovered in different parts of
the globe. He says of himself, that he received the most advantageous
offers from Charles V, Ferdinand, Maximilian II, and Rodolph II,
emperors of Germany, and from the czar of Muscovy an offer of L.2000
sterling _per annum_, upon condition that he would reside in his
dominions. All these circumstances were solemnly attested by Dee in a
Compendious Rehearsal of his Life and Studies for half-a-century,
composed at a later period, and read by him at his house at Mortlake
to two commissioners appointed by Elizabeth to enquire into his
circumstances, accompanied with evidences and documents to establish
the particulars. [210]

Had Dee gone no further than this, he would undoubtedly have ranked
among the profoundest scholars and most eminent geniuses that adorned
the reign of the maiden queen. But he was unfortunately cursed with an
ambition that nothing could satisfy; and, having accustomed his mind
to the wildest reveries, and wrought himself up to an extravagant
pitch of enthusiasm, he pursued a course that involved him in much
calamity, and clouded all his latter days with misery and ruin. He
dreamed perpetually of the philosopher's stone, and was haunted with
the belief of intercourse of a supramundane character. It is almost
impossible to decide among these things, how much was illusion, and
how much was forgery. Both were inextricably mixed in his proceedings;