actuated by any thing but a sincere though erroneous belief, that she was fulfilling a solemn duty. He is more correct in the description which he gives of her doctrines. “She taught a complete renunciation of self, the silence of the soul, the annihilation of all its faculties, internal worship, and the pure and disinterested love of God, which is neither degraded by fear, nor animated by the hope of reward.” It must be owned that, both in language and ideas, she often fell into enormous absurdity, in her efforts to explain and enforce these doctrines. For five years Madame Guyon wandered through Piedmont, Dauphiny, and the adjacent provinces, spreading her opinions by the press as well as by oral Communication. As was to be expected, she made many ardent proselytes, and not a few enemies. In 1686 she returned to Paris, and continued her labours, and was left unmolested for two years. At length she attracted the notice of the archbishop of Paris, who affected to be shocked at the resemblance which her tenets bore to those of Molinos. The see of Paris was at that time filled by Harlay de Chamvallon, an individual infamously celebrated for his profligate debauchery. This prelate, who certainly was not likely to comprehend a pure and disinterested love of God, or of man or woman either, procured Lacombe to be sent to the Bastile as a seducer, and Madame Guyon to the Visitandines convent. At the Visitandines she was generally beloved, and made several converts. She was soon after snatched from the clutches of Harlay by Madame de Maintenon, who admitted her at St. Cyr, and became much attached to her. It was at St. Cyr that she was also introduced to Fenelon; a friendship took place between them which nothing could ever shake. But though Fenelon continued true to his friend, Madame de Maintenon ultimately deserted her. This desertion was the work of Godet-Desmarais, bishop of Chartres, who was the religious director of St. Cyr and of Madame de Maintenon. The mind of the king was also poisoned against her; and she was exposed to a long series of persecutions, not the least painful of which was a slanderous attack on her character, made in the form of a letter from Lacombe, exhorting her to repent of their criminal intimacy. Lacombe was then insane. So irreproachable, however, was her conduct, that her innocence was universally acknowledged. In 1695 she was sent to Vincennes, whence she was removed to the Bastile; but she was released through the intervention of Noailles, who had succeeded the shameless Harlay in the archbishopric of Paris. In 1698 she was again immured in the Bastile, and was not liberated till 1702. After her liberation, she was exiled to Blois, where, for fifteen years, her patience, piety, and charity, were admired by every one. She died in 1717, at the age of sixty-nine.