Could John Dee have lived another century he might have found in the work of Isaac Newton some answer to his prayer. The very intensity of the longing to understand the mysteries of the universe was in part the cause of the errors into which he fell. His belief in astrology and in the value of the alchemical experiments on which he spent so much of his energy and substance may be accounted an error of the time rather than of the individual, but his long connection with Edward Kelley—charlatan and magician—is not easily reconciled with his intelligence. Kelley, at first an apothecary, became an avowed dealer in magic and seems, for a time, to have made a complete dupe of Dee, who in all good faith admitted him as a valued assistant in his researches and travels. Between the years 1582 and 1589 they were making alchemical experiments, peering into crystals, communing with spirits, etc.—part of the time in England, part of the time on the continent—chiefly at Prague. When in 1590 the real character of his masterful assistant became apparent, Dee experienced the keenest sorrow over misplaced confidence.
But for the time of his wardenship of Manchester College, 1596–1604, he spent the remaining years of his life at Mortlake in poverty and sadness. Queen Elizabeth, in passing to and from Richmond, often stopped to question and console him and sent her own physicians when he was ill. From the records of the time "Master" Dee seems to have made a deep impression on the people round about, both because of his learning and of his handsome presence. Aubrey speaks of him as a great peacemaker among his neighbors, and adds "a mighty good man was he." By some Dee was accounted a conjuror, and so oppressed was he by the charge that he petitioned James I. in 1604 that he might be tried and cleared of the horrible slander. After the king had inquired into the nature of his studies the petition was refused as unnecessary. Up to his death in 1608 Dee retained the profoundest interest in experiments. His magic crystal and cakes are preserved in the British Museum.
Though his actual contribution to science was not great, John Dee belonged to and had an important part in the transition from the commentatorial period of the middle ages to that time of bold originality and vivid reality—the time of Bacon, Kepler, Galileo and of their young contemporary, Descartes. His eyes at least were above the plane on which Francis Bacon stood. Forerunners such as Dee prepared the way for the stupendous achievements of the seventeenth century—that century made notable by the introduction of the most powerful mathematical methods and by the use of these methods to obtain an understanding of the laws that govern the phenomena of nature.
