[66] See, for example, WILLIAM LILLY: _History of His Life and Times_ (1715, reprinted in 1822, p. 227).
[67] See ANTHONY À WOOD’S account of Kelley’s life in _Athenæ Oxonienses_ (3rd edition, edited by Philip Bliss, vol. i. col. 639.)
[68] William Lilly, the astrologer, in his _History of His Life and Times_ (1822 reprint, pp. 225-226), relates a different story regarding the manner in which Kelley is supposed to have obtained the Great Medicine, but as it is told at third hand, it is of little importance. We do not suppose that there can be much doubt that the truth was that Dee and others were deceived by some skilful conjuring tricks, for whatever else Kelley may have been, he certainly was a very ingenious fellow.
[69] _The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee_ (The Camden Society, 1842), p. 22.
[70] _The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee_ (The Camden Society, 1842), p. 27.
It was during his incarceration that he wrote an alchemistic work entitled _The Stone of the Philosophers_, which consists largely of quotations from older alchemistic writings. His other works on Alchemy were probably written at an earlier period.[71]
[71] An English translation of Kelley’s alchemistic works were published under the editorship of Mr. A. E. Waite, in 1893.
§ =53.= =Henry Khunrath= was born in Saxony in the second half of the sixteenth century. He was a follower of Paracelsus, and travelled about Germany, practising as a physician. “This German alchemist,” says Mr. A. E. Waite, “. . . is claimed as a hierophant of the psychic side of the _magnum opus_, and . . . was undoubtedly aware of the larger issues, of Hermetic theorems”; he describes Khunrath’s chief work, _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ_, &c., as “purely mystical and magical.”[72]
[72] A. E. WAITE: _Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers_ (1888), p. 159.
Alexander Sethon (?-1604) and Michael Sendivogius (1566?-1646).
§ =54.= The date and birthplace of =Alexander Sethon=, a Scottish alchemist, do not appear to have been recorded, but =Michael Sendivogius= was probably born in Moravia about 1566. Sethon, we are told, was in possession of the arch-secrets of Alchemy. He visited Holland in 1602, proceeded after a time to Italy, and passed through Basle to Germany; meanwhile he is said to have performed many transmutations. Ultimately arriving at Dresden, however, he fell into the clutches of the young Elector, Christian II., who, in order to extort his secret, cast him into prison, and put him to the torture, but without avail. Now, it so happened that Sendivogius, who was in quest of the Philosopher’s Stone, was staying at Dresden, and hearing of Sethon’s imprisonment obtained permission to visit him. Sendivogius offered to effect Sethon’s escape in return for assistance in his alchemistic pursuits, to which arrangement the Scottish alchemist willingly agreed. After some considerable outlay of money in bribery, Sendivogius’s plan of escape was successfully carried out, and Sethon found himself a free man; but he refused to betray the high secrets of Hermetic philosophy to his rescuer. However, before his death, which occurred shortly afterwards, he presented him with an ounce of the transmutative powder. Sendivogius soon used up this powder, we are told, in effecting transmutations and cures, and, being fond of expensive living, he married Sethon’s widow, in the hope that she was in the possession of the transmutative secret. In this, however, he was disappointed; she knew nothing of the matter, but she had the manuscript of an alchemistic work written by her late husband. Shortly afterwards Sendivogius printed at Prague a book entitled _The New Chemical Light_ under the name of “Cosmopolita,” which is said to be this work of Sethon’s but which Sendivogius claimed for his own by the insertion of his name on the title-page, in the form of an anagram. The tract _On Sulphur_ which was printed at the end of later editions, however, is said to have been the genuine work of the Moravian. Whilst his powder lasted, Sendivogius travelled about, performing, we are told, many transmutations. He was twice imprisoned in order to extort the secrets of Alchemy from him, on one occasion escaping, and on the other occasion obtaining his release from the Emperor Rudolph. Afterwards, he appears to have degenerated into an impostor, but this is said to have been a _finesse_ to hide his true character as an alchemistic adept. He died in 1646.[73]