In this book she deplores her early devotion to literature and art. Other accounts add that she collected the followers of Labadie--called Labadists--and, continuing to disseminate his tenets, assumed the leadership of the band, and conducted them to Vivert in Friesland. She brought over Elizabeth--Princess Palatine--to these doctrines, and together they opened an asylum for the wandering disciples. True to the doctrines she professed, Anna Maria bestowed all her goods to feed the poor, and sank to the grave in poverty, dying in May, 1678, at the age of seventy-one. William Penn mentions, in his “Journey in Germany,” a conversation he had at Vivert with this wonderful woman in 1677, noticing especially the gravity and solemnity of her tones in discourse. Anna Maria Schurmann has left behind her not only the renown of her great learning and artistic culture, truly remarkable in one of either sex, but also a reputation for purity of heart and fervor of religious feeling, which can not be disturbed by her mistaken though sincere belief, and the fanatical enthusiasm with which she clung to absurd dogmas. In her portrait her hair is combed back from her forehead, with flowing side locks. The back knot is wreathed with ornaments. A large pointed collar closely encircles her throat. Her features are marked; her eyes keen and expressive; her Roman nose is large. Among the contemporaries of Anna Maria Schurmann were the painters Clara Peters, Alida Withoos, Susanna von Steen, and Catharine Oostfries; with the copper-engravers Susanna Verbruggen, Anna de Koher, and Maria de Wilde, who etched a series of fifty pieces--gems in her father’s collection--and published them in 1700 at Amsterdam. It was in the seventeenth century that flower-painting was carried to such perfection among the women of the Netherlands. Constantia of Utrecht and Angelica Pakman may be classed with the pioneers of this beautiful art--this truly feminine accomplishment. MARIA VAN OOSTERWYCK was the first eminent artist in this branch, and the precursor of one superior to her--Rachel Ruysch--who, esteemed in her day as the pride and honor of the Dutch school, was, indeed, worthy of being reckoned among those of whom the whole world is proud. Though not so great, Maria is justly numbered among the illustrious women of Holland. She was born at Nootdorp, near Delft, about 1630. She received her early instruction from the distinguished flower-painter, David Heem. Her father was a preacher of the Reformed religion, and took pains in cultivating his daughter’s intellectual powers. He did not fail to notice her remarkable inclination to painting, and her dissatisfaction, and even disgust, at the trifles that served to amuse other girls of her age. She always had the crayon in her hand.