128 JOHN SWAMMERDAM. 



wholly unable to resist the temptation offered by 

 solitude and by the presence of the objects which 

 invited his research. In the mean time^ Thevenot, 

 being made acquainted with these circumstances, 

 urged him to return to France, generously offering 

 him every thing necessary to enable him to fol- 

 low the bent of his genius. His father, however, 

 did not approve of this scheme, which was there- 

 fore relinquished ; but the son did not the less con- 

 tinue to pursue his former occupations. 



In 1672, he published his Miraculum Naturae, 

 seu Uteri Muliebris Fabrica. He soon afterwards 

 entered upon an extensive examination of fishes, hav. 

 ing reference chiefly to the pancreas. About this time 

 he began to be impressed with religious ideas ; be- 

 coming sensible of the vanity of human pursuits, as 

 well as of the sinfulness of that inordinate ambition 

 which impels men to aim at the highest place in 

 the estimation of their fellows. He accordingly re- 

 solved to eradicate that base passion from his breast. 

 In this state of mind he imbibed the mystical no- 

 tions of the celebrated Antoinette Bourignon. 



This lady, who was a native of Lisle in Flanders, 

 had become at an early age impressed with the idea 

 that pure Christianity was in a state of decay, and 

 that she was called to revive it. She became gover- 

 ness of the hospital of her native city, and took the 

 order and habit of St Augustin ; but owing to the 

 disturbances caused by her violent temper and pre- 

 tensions to inspiration, the magistrates were obliged 

 to expel her from her office, when she retired to 

 Ghent. The fortune which she inherited from her 

 parents, and that bequeathed to her by her convert 

 De Cordt, enabled her to publish several works of 



