, famous only for his love of mysticism and enthusiasm, and for his writings
, famous only for his love of mysticism and enthusiasm, and for his writings conformable to
those sentiments, was born at Metz, April 15, 1646, and
educated at Basle in Switzerland, in the college of Erasmus. His father, who was a sword-cutler, placed him as
pupil to a sculptor, and from him he learned design at
least, and retained so much of the art as to draw the portrait of his favourite, madame Bourignon. This pursuit,
however, he forsook for the learned languages, philosophy, and theology. He became a minister at Heidelberg
in 1668, and at Anweil obtained a similar situation in
1674. Here it was that he met with the works of the mystical writers, with which, particularly with those of madame
Bourignon, he became to the utmost infatuated. Madame
Guyon was another of his favourites, and he determined
to live according to their maxims. Towards the end of
life he retired to Reinsberg in Holland, where he died,
May 21, 1719, at the age of seventy-three. His works
are all of the mystical kind: 1. “Cogitationes rationales
de Deo,
” Amst.
L'ceconomie Divine,
” 1687, in 7 vols. 8vo, in which all the
notions of Bourignon are repeated. 3. “La Paix des
bonnes Ames,
” Amst. Les Principes
solides de la Religion Chretienne,
” Theologie du Coeur,
” Cologne, de Eruditione triplici,
” in 2 vols. 4to, reprinted at Amsterdam in 1707. This being directed
against Descartes, has been compared to the attack of the
viper upon the file. It contains, however, some good observations.