THEODORE VAN, a very remarkable person, was a native of Amsterdam, where he was born in 1522. He was a man of science, and, according to report, also a poet. The sister arts at first he considered as an amusement only; but in the end he was obliged to have recourse to engraving alone for his support; and though the different studies in which he employed his time prevented his attachment to his profession being as close as it might have been, yet the marks of genius are discoverable in his works. They are slight, and hastily executed with the graver alone, but in an open careless style, so as to resemble designs made with a pen. He established himself at Haerlem, where pursuing his favourite studies in literature, he learned Latin, and was made secretary to the town; he was also sent several times as ambassador to the Prince of Orange, to whom he addressed a famous manifesto, which that prince published in 1566. And if he had stopped there, it would have been well; but directing his thoughts into different channel, he undertook an argument as dangerous as it was absurd. He maintained that all religious communions were corrupted; and that, without a supernatural mission, accompanied with miracles, no person had a right to administer in any religious office. He therefore pronounced every man who entered any place of public worship to be unworthy the name of Christian; and this he not only advanced in words, but strove to show the sincerity of his belief by practice, refusing to communicate either with Protestants or Catholics. His works were published in three volumes folio in 1630; and though he was several times imprisoned, and at last sentenced to banishment, yet he does not appear to have altered his sentiments. He died at Dergoude in 1590, aged sixty-eight.