We are told that Anna Maria could speak in Latin when seven years old, and translated from Seneca at ten. She acquired the Hebrew, Greek, Samaritan, Arabic, Chaldaic, Syriac, Ethiopian, Turkish, and Persian languages with such thoroughness that her admirers claim that she wrote and spoke them all. She also read with ease and spoke with finished elegance Italian, Spanish, English, and French, besides German and her native tongue. Anna Maria Schurmann wrote verses in various languages, but the chief end which her exhaustive studies served was to aid her in theological research; in this she found her greatest satisfaction and deepest interest. She was respectfully consulted upon important questions by the scholars of different countries. At the University of Utrecht an honorable place was reserved for her in the lecture-rooms, and she frequently took part in the learned discussions there. The professors of the University of Leyden paid her the compliment of erecting a tribune where she could hear all that passed in the lecture-room without being seen by the audience. As an artist the Schurmann reached such excellence that the painter Honthorst valued a portrait by her at a thousand Dutch florins--about four hundred and thirty dollars--an enormous sum when we remember that the works of her contemporary, Albert Cuyp, were sold for thirty florins! and no higher price was paid for his works before the middle of the eighteenth century. A few years ago his picture, called "Morning Light," was sold at a public sale in London for twenty-five thousand dollars. How astonishing that a celebrated artist like Honthorst, who painted in Utrecht when Cuyp painted in Dort, should have valued a portrait by Anna Maria Schurmann at the price of thirty-three works by Cuyp! Such facts as these suggest a question regarding the relative value of the works of more modern artists. Will the judgments of the present be thus reversed in the future? This extraordinary woman filled the measure of possibilities by carving in wood and ivory, engraving on crystal and copper, and having a fine musical talent, playing on several instruments. When it is added that she was of a lovable nature and attractive in manner, one is not surprised that her contemporaries called her "the wonder of creation." Volsius was her friend and taught her Hebrew. She was intimately associated with such scholars as Salmatius and Heinsius, and was in correspondence with scholars, philosophers, and theologians regarding important questions of her time. Anna Maria Schurmann was singularly free from egotism. She rarely consented to publish her writings, though often urged to do so. She avoided publicity and refused complimentary attentions which were urged upon her, conducting herself with a modesty as rare as her endowments.