Autobiography of Madame Guyon. Translated in full by Thomas Taylor
Allen. (Kegan Paul and Co. 21s.)—This is a curious and interesting book for the student of human nature. It gives us the picture of a woman who was not only genuinely religious, but who had a genius for religion. As with many geniuses, an extraordinary development on one aide of her nature was counter- balanced by corresponding deficiencies on others. That she was a woman of intellectual as well as spiritual gifts the style of her autobiography clearly shows. But the utter absence of a sense of proportion, and of the balancing power of judgment in her mind, led her into such wild extravagances of belief that we can only say that if there be such a thing as spiritual insanity, then she was spiritually insane. At one time she was plunged into the depths of melancholia ; at another she soared to the heights of religious rapture, when she believed herself possessed of such miraculous and divine powers and attributes, that it seems almost irreverent to speak of them. That she was the victim of great injustice, especially from the Bishop of Meaux, we do not deny ; but we must take with a grain of salt her account of the universal conspiracy against her from her childish days and onwards. The translation of her autobiography, now given in full for the first time, has been well done by Mr. Taylor Allen, who, judging by his preface, will hold these critical remarks to be the proof of a hopelessly unspiritual condition.
Previous page
