MEMOIR OP 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 was 
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 
1 680. 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 w 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 
Mosheim's Eccl. Hist . V. p. 614, <^c. 
