MARIA SIBILLA MERIAN. 23 



philosophical investigations of Redi and Swammer- 

 dam, though at this time in progress, and even in 

 part published, were as y x hut little known. It in 

 not, therefore, surprising that Madam Merian should 

 occasionally have fallen into error, the more espe- 

 cially as she seems to have been but imperfectly 

 acquainted even with the little that had been 

 accomplished by her predecessors in the same field 

 of labour. 



After residing about fourteen years at Nuremberg, 

 Madam Merian returned, in 1684, to Frankfort, 

 along with her husband, who had again rejoined 

 her some years previously. Not long after, how- 

 ever, she left him, in company with her two daugh- 

 ters, for the purpose of uniting themselves to a sect 

 of religionists, named Labbadists, who had esta- 

 blished themselves at Bosch, between Franeker and 

 Leuwarden. These enthusiasts were followers of 

 the famous John Labadie, a native of Bourg in 

 Guienne, who had renounced the doctrines of the 

 church of Rome, and promulgated a set of opinions 

 bearing some resemblance to those of the Quietists, 

 but mingled with several peculiar notions of his 

 own. His supposed sanctity and remarkable elo- 

 quence had given him, notwithstanding the extra- 

 vagance of some of his opinions, a great influence 

 over many, particularly females, a class of fol- 

 lowers which Bayle affirms, significantly, he was 

 always much more anxious to conciliate than the 

 opposite sex. Besides Madam Merian, one of the 

 most celebrated of his converts was Anna Maria 



