It happened opportunely that, a short time before Dee received this
gift from on high, he contracted a familiar intercourse with one
Edward Kelly of Worcestershire, whom he found specially qualified to
perform the part which it was necessary to Dee to have adequately
filled. Kelly was an extraordinary character, and in some respects
exactly such a person as Dee wanted. He was just twenty-eight years
younger than the memorable personage, who now received him as an
inmate, and was engaged in his service at a stipulated salary of fifty
pounds a year.

Kelly entered upon life with a somewhat unfortunate adventure. He was
accused, when a young man, of forgery, brought to trial, convicted,
and lost his ears in the pillory. This misfortune however by no means
daunted him. He was assiduously engaged in the search for the
philosopher's stone. He had an active mind, great enterprise, and a
very domineering temper. Another adventure in which he had been
engaged previously to his knowledge of Dee, was in digging up the body
of a man, who had been buried only the day before, that he might
compel him by incantations, to answer questions, and discover future
events. There was this difference therefore between the two persons
previously to their league. Dee was a man of regular manners and
unspotted life, honoured by the great, and favourably noticed by
crowned heads in different parts of the world; while Kelly was a
notorious profligate, accustomed to the most licentious actions, and
under no restraint from morals or principle.

One circumstance that occurred early in the acquaintance of Kelly and
Dee it is necessary to mention. It serves strikingly to illustrate the
ascendancy of the junior and impetuous party over his more gifted
senior. Kelly led Dee, we are not told under what pretence, to visit