As it is not generally known that the "Agapemone" had a prototype in the celebrated _Family of Love_, some account of this "wicked sect" may not at this moment be without interest to your readers:-- "Henry Nicholas, a Westphalian, born at Munster, but who had lived a great while at Amsterdam, and some time likewise at Embden, was the father of this family. He appeared upon the stage about the year 1540, styled himself the _deified man_, boasted of great matters, and seemed to exalt himself above the condition of a human creature. He was, as he pretended, greater than Moses and Christ, because Moses had taught mankind to _hope_, Christ to _believe_, but he to _love_; which last being of more worth than both the former, he was consequently greater than both those prophets."--See Brandt's _Hist. of the Reform, &c., in the Low Countries_, vol. i. p. 105, ed. 1720. According to some writers, however, the sect was not founded by Henry Nicholas, but by David George, an Anabaptist enthusiast of Delft, who died in 1556; and indeed there is some reason to believe that the _Family of Love_ grew out of the heresies of the said George, with whom Nicholas had been on friendly terms. "'Not content,' says Fuller, speaking of Nicholas, 'to confine his errors to his own country, over he comes into England, and in the latter end of the reign of Edward the Sixth, joyned himself to the Dutch congregation in London, where he seduced a number of artificers and silly women.'"--_Church. Hist._, p. 112, ed. 1655. On the 12th of June, 1575, according to the historian Hollinshed, "Stood at Paule's Crosse five persons, Englishmen, of the sect termed the Familie of Love, who there confessed themselves utterlie to detest as well the author of that sect, H. N., as all his damnable errors and heresies." A curious little volume on the history and doctrines of this sect appeared in the year 1572, from the pen of John Rogers, entitled _The Displaying of an horrible Secte of grosse and wicked Heretiques, naming themselves the Family of Love, with the Lives of their Authors, and what Doctrine they teach in Corners. Imprinted at London for George Bishop._ 1579. 12mo. Christopher Vittall, a joiner of Southwark, who had been infected with the doctrine of Arius some twenty years before, and whose credit was great amongst the _Family of Love_, was at this period actively engaged in teaching their doctrines. He travelled about the country to disseminate them; and was likewise author of a little book, in reply to Roger's _Displaying_ of the sect, printed in the same year.