Kelly obtained it, as I had it related
from an ancient minister, who new the certainty thereof from an old
English merchant resident in Germany, at what time both Kelly and Dee
were there.

"Dee and Kelly being on the confines of the emperor's dominions, in a
city where resided many English merchants, with whom they had much
familiarity, there happened an old friar to come to Dr Dee's lodging,
knocking at the door. Dee peeped down the stairs:--'Kelly,' says he,
'tell the old man I am not at home.' Kelly did so. The friar said, 'I
will take another time to wait on him.' Some few days after, he came
again. Dee ordered Kelly, if it were the same person, to deny him again.
He did so; at which the friar was very angry. 'Tell thy master I came to
speak with him and to do him good, because he is a great scholar and
famous;--but now tell him, he put forth a book, and dedicated it to the
emperor. It is called '_Monas Hieroglyphicas_.' He understands it not. I
wrote it myself. I came to instruct him therein, and in some other more
profound things. Do thou, Kelly, come along with me; I will make thee
more famous than thy master Dee. Kelly was very apprehensive of what the
friar delivered, and thereupon suddenly retired from Dee, and wholly
applied unto the friar, and of him either had the elixir ready made, or
the perfect method of its preparation and making. The poor friar lived a
very short time after; whether he died a natural death, or was otherwise
poisoned or made away by Kelly, the merchant who related this did not
certainly know."

Kelly was born at Worcester, and had been an apothecary. He had a sister
who lived there for some time after his death, and who used to exhibit
some gold made by her brother's projection. "It was vulgarly reported
that he had a compact with the devil, which he outlived, and was seized
at midnight by infernal spirits, who carried him off in sight of his
family, at the instant he was meditating a mischievous design against
the minister of the parish, with whom he was greatly at enmity."

It would have been easy to select a more historical statement of facts
respecting Kelly; but the following tale, the events of one day only,
will, we hope, be more interesting to the generality of readers. It
exhibits a curious display of the intrigues and devices by which these
impostors acquired an almost unlimited power over the minds of their
fellow-men. Human credulity once within their grasp, they could w