MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 41 



native of Lisle in Flanders, a member of an opulent 

 family, from which she fled in order to avoid a mar- 

 riage which they were desirous for her to contract. Her 

 turbulent disposition, in connection with her objec- 

 tionable tenets, so disturbed the community where- 

 ever she took up her residence, that the civil autho- 

 rities had usually to interfere, and compel her to 

 change her abode. Her doctrines nearly correspond 

 to those of the Mystics, and are explained in a 

 work entitled the " Light of the World," the leading 

 principle of which is, that the Christian religion con- 

 sists neither in knowledge nor practice, but in a 

 certain internal feeling and divine impulse; which 

 arises immediately from communion with the Deity.* 



* One of the most influential of Bourignon's followers wa8 

 a person named De Cordt, owner of a portion of the island of 

 Holstein, who, at his death, made her his heir. She kept her 

 wealth, however, to herself, under the pretence that she could 

 find none worthy of her bounty ! Although there is little doubt 

 that her intellect was disordered, she was certainly possessed 

 of considerable talent. She could write French, Dutch, and 

 German, almost with equal facility, and her religious compo- 

 sitions were so numerous as to afford employment for a print- 

 ing press kept in her own house. She died at Franeker in 

 1680. Her disciples, who assumed the name of Bourignonists, 

 became more numerous after her decease ; and one of the 

 most celebrated of them, a Cartesian named Peter Poiret, 

 attempted to reduce her works to a system, which was pub- 

 lished at Amsterdam in 1686, under the title of " L'CEconomie 

 Divine, ou Systeme Universel." Her opinions, at one time, 

 excited a good deal of discussion in Scotland, and notwith- 

 standing their extravagance, found not a few supporters. See 

 Mosheini's Eccl. Hist. V. p. 514, $c. 



