BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.

“I VENTURE to hope,” says the subject of this memoir, in his treatise entitled On the Philosopher's Stone original: "De Lapide Philosophorum", “that my life and character 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. Posterity 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 It was widely rumored that Kelly’s ears were "cropped" or cut off as a legal punishment for forgery in his youth, though some biographers suggest he simply wore a black skullcap to hide them for other reasons; as a sordid impostor, who duped the immeasurable credulity of the learned Doctor Dee John Dee (1527–1608/9) was a brilliant Renaissance mathematician, navigator, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, whose reputation was later tarnished by his association with Kelly and occultism, and subsequently involved his victim in transactions which have permanently