GUYON. JOHANNA-MAIUK BOUVIERS. 



OWILT, 



240 



At a liit! nut fifteen she wu married to If. Guyon, whom 

 b* had not Mm till two or throe day* before her marriage. The 

 onion WM not a happy on*; the husband wu passionate, and twenty- 

 two year* older, and the mother-in-law insulted her. She uy* *be 

 pny^l continually, and when her husband wa* iuffrring from the gout 

 urwd him carefully, and ultimately succeeded in converting him to 

 bar relitrioo* riewa. At the age of twenty-eight *he lost him, and was 

 lift a widow with three amall children in 1576. Though now attentive 

 to the temporal interests and the education of her children, her 

 feelings increased in intensity. She believed that she had 

 lj interior communications of the divine will, but was deeply 

 about the state of her *ouL In 1680, on St. Magdalene's 

 Day, on occasion of a mass, sho say* " niy soul was perfectly delivered 

 from all iU pains." She *oon after went to Paris, wa* exhorted in 

 what she considered a miraculous manner to devote herself to the 

 en ice of the Church, and went to Geneva to succour the Catholics 

 there, but ultimately settled at Gex in 1681, in an establishment 

 founded for the reception of converted Protestant*. Her family 

 then urged her to resign the guardianship of her children, which she 

 did, giving up all her fortune to them, retaining only sufficient for her 

 subsistence. Soon after the Bishop of Geneva wished her to bestow 

 this pittance upon the establishment, of which she was to be made 

 prioreu. She declined, and left Oex for the Ursuline convent at 

 Thonon. Here the bishop continued to annoy her ; and she went first 

 to Turin, then to Grenoble, Marseille, Alessandria, afterwards to 

 Veroeil, and at length, after an abnenoe of five yean, returned to Paris 

 in a very ill state of health. During all this time she had had dreams, 

 vision*, and marvellous manifestations. She had read the scriptures 

 diligently, and wrote explications of them ; " before I wrote I knew 

 nothing of what I wo* going to write, and after I had written I 

 remembered nothing of what I had penned," she Bays, in the singular 

 autobiography which she has left of herself. Two other of her works 

 of this period were, 'Moyen court et tres facile de faire Oraison,' 

 which was published, and rapidly ran through five or six editions, and 

 'Le Cantique dea Cantiques do Salomon, interpret^ selon le sens 

 mystique.' Though the works were highly popular, they gave great 

 offence to the priesthood. They inculcated what was then called 

 Quietism, a mystic state of repose of the mind in the goodness and 

 mercy of God. It was the persecution of the priests that had caused 

 her frequent changes of residence, and on her return to Paris she was 

 confined, on their representations, by a lettre de cachet, in the convent 

 of the Visitation of St. Mary, in the suburb of St. Autoine. Here 

 she was visited and examined by M. de Harl.il, archbishop of Paris, 

 who, convinced of her innocence, obtained her release after an imprison- 

 ment of nearly eight months. Soon after her release she became 

 acquainted with Fenelon,-who continued her firm friend for life. The 

 outcry of the priests however continued ; she felt uneasy as to the 

 character of her writings, and placed them in the hands of Bossuet, 

 bishop of Meaux. tie was satisfied as to her sincerity ; but the priests 

 succeeded in procuring a commission to examine her doctrines anew, 

 of which Boesuct was at the head. At the end of six months thirty 

 article* were drawn up by him, sufficient, as he deemed, to prevent 

 the mischief likely to arise from Quietism, which were signed by 

 Madame Gnyon, who submitted at the same time to the censure 

 which Bossuet had passed on her writings in the preceding April 

 Notwithstanding this submission, she was subsequently involved in 

 the persecution* of Fenelon, the archbishop of Cambrai, and in 1695 

 wa* imprisoned in the castle of Tincennes, and thence removed to the 

 Bastile, enduring the harshest treatment, and subjected to repeated 

 examinations. In 1700 she was released, when she retired to Blois, to 

 the house of her daughter, where she wrote BO continuously that her 

 work* form 39 volume* in 8vo. She had written her autobiography 

 previously, which Cowpcr translated, and of which he has said, " she 

 will be found to have conversed familiarly with God." Of another 

 of her works, ' Cantiques Spirituels, ou d'Kmblemes sur 1' Amour Divin,' 

 he has al*o said, that though she was accused of being a Quietist and a 

 fanatic, yet he admired them, for " her verse is the only French verse 

 I ever read that I found agreeable, and there is a neatness in it equal 

 to that which we applaud with so much reason in the compositions of 

 Prior." He translated many of them, which arc still highly esteemed 

 by the holders of certain religious opinions. She died on the 9th of 

 June 1797. 



Madame de Guyon's was a singular character. Her enthusiasm was 

 excessive, but sincere. Her life wo* passed in the exemplary dis- 

 charge of every duty, and she even submitted her opinions to the 

 authority of her Church ; but her reason was too clear, her faculties 

 too keen, to allow her to see through other eyes than her own, and 

 thence the opposition she met with. With a vivid imagination often 

 approaching hallucination, she possessed a strong common sense that 

 preserved her from the last excesses of extravagance ; and while she 

 rejoiced in being a martyr for religion's sake she had sufficient sagacity 

 to secure the enjoyment of the sober elegancies of life. Her auto- 

 biography U a remarkable work, and afford* an interesting history of 

 a mind ; it is full of earnest and thoughtful prayers, which are often 

 rhapsodical and sometime* poetical ; of a mind that converted coin- 

 cidences into marvels and spiritual manifestations, and accepted deep 

 impression* a* divine inspiration* with the uio*t nndoubting faith. 

 It is no wonder that it became a favourite with Cowper. ilia trans- 



lation was never published, but a mutilated one has since appeared by 

 J. I>. Brooke, printed in 1806. Her doctrines had many follower*, 

 and are even now not extinct; and her prayers and experiences are 

 still admired by many who are in no sense her followers. 



GUYTON DE MORVEAU, LOUIS BERNARD, a chemist of very 

 considerable reputation, was born on the 4th of January 1737, at 

 Dijon, in the university of which his father was professor of civil law. 

 In very early life he showed a turn fur mechanics, and after studying 

 at home he went to college, which he quitted at sixteen yean of age ; 

 he then became a law student for three yean in the university of 

 Dijon, and afterward* repaired to Paris to acquire a knowledge of the 

 practice of the law. At the age of twenty-four he had pleaded several 

 important causes, and hi* father purchased for him the office of 

 advocate-general in the parliament of Dijon ; he soon afterwards was 

 admitted an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Dijcm. 

 His taste for chemistry seems to have arisen from his attendance upon 

 the lectures of Dr. Chardenon, who was in the haV>it of reading 

 memoirs on chemical subjects ; and, without neglecting the cultivation 

 of literature, he applied himself with great diligence to the study of 

 chemistry. 



In 1772, having previously published some less important papers, 

 he gave to the world a collection of scientific essays, entitled ' Digres- 

 sions Acaddmiques ;' the memoin contained in this work on phlogiston, 

 solution, and crystallisation merit particular notice, and evince the 

 superior knowledge which he had acquired on the subjects that he 

 had undertaken to illustrate. 



In the following year he achieved the important discovery of the 

 means of destroying infection by acid vapours, and of all his labours 

 it is this for which his name will be transmitted to posterity with 

 those of the benefactors of mankind. In one of the churches of Dijon 

 a practice had prevailed of burying the dead in considerable numben 

 within its walls ; this proceeding occasioned an infectious exhalation, 

 which brought on a malignant disorder, to the great alarm of the 

 inhabitants of the city. When other attempts to remedy this evil 

 bad failed, it occurred to Morveau that the vapours of muriatic acid 

 might be successfully employed to remove it. With this view be 

 made a mixture of sulphuric acid and common salt, in wide-mouthed 

 vessels, which were placed upon chafing-dishes, and in different parts 

 of the edifice ; after closing the windows and doors for twenty-four 

 hours, and then suffering the air freely to pervade the building, no 

 remains of the fetid smell were perceptible, and the church was cleared 

 from infection. The same process was tried on other occasions, and 

 the practice is still continued, with the improvement of substituting 

 chlorine gas for muriatic or hydrochloric acid gas. 



Although this was probably the first employment of muriatic acid gas 

 as a disinfectant on a large scale, and with results so striking as those 

 detailed, it appears nevertheless, that Dr. Johnstone of Worcester had 

 recommended the use of the same gas for this purpose in the year 

 1756 ; it is even stated that he employed it in the prison of Worcester, 

 but he does not seem to have published his process before the 

 appearance of Morveau's tract on the subject. 



In 1766 Morveau commenced a course of lectures on chemistry in 

 Dijon, which met with great success, being delivered with clearness 

 and illustrated by numerous and striking experiments. In the year 

 following be published the first volume of a course of chemistry, 

 entitled ' Elumens de Chimie de 1' Academic de Dijou :' the work was 

 completed in four volumes. Ho afterwards undertook to supply the 

 chemical articles for the ' Encyclopedic Mdthodique;' the articles 

 'acide,' 'adhdsion,' and 'affinite ' contain a vast body of information 

 clearly drawn up : for reasons which are not known, ho discontinue' 1 

 his connection with this work. A paper which he published in the 

 'Journal de Physique" for 1782, on the necessity of establishing a 

 new and scientific nomenclature, had a great share in producing the 

 reformation in chemical nomenclature rendered necessary by the 

 establishment of the antiphlogistic theory, and by the numerous new 

 facts which had been discovered. 



On the breaking out of the French Revolution Guyton do Morveau 

 wag made a member of the Constitutional Assembly and of the Council 

 of Five Hundred. In 1799 Bonaparte appointed him one of the 

 administrators-general of the miut, and in the year following director 

 of the Polytechnic School ; and after being an officer of the Legion of 

 Honour he was created a baron of the French empire in 1811. At an 

 advanced period of life he married Madame Picardet, the widow of a 

 Dijon academician : he left no children. After teaching about sixteen 

 years in the Polytechnic School he gave up the appointment; and 

 after about three years' retirement he died on the 3rd of January, 

 1816. 



The publication of Guyton de Morveau on chemical subjects are 

 very numerous, and few of his contemporaries contributed more to 

 the advancement of the science ; he was however not the author of 

 any striking or fundamental chemical discoveries. His papers may 

 be found in the ' Memoirs of the Dijon Academy,' the ' Anuales de 

 Chimie,' and the 'Journal de Physique.' 



i : WILT, GEORGE, architect, was well known as an antiquary, and 

 for his restoration of the choir and tower, and the Lady Chapel, of St. 

 Mary Orery's church, in the parish of St. Saviour'*, Southwnrk. 

 George and Joseph (iwilt [GwiLT, JOSEPH], were the sbns of George 

 Uwilt, on architect, resident in the parixh, who was surveyor for the 



