a French lady, memorable for her writings, and for her sufferings in the cause of quietism, was descended from a noble family, and born at Montargis in 1648. She was daughter of Claude Bouvier, seigneur of La Motte-Vergonville, and master of requests. At a very early age she exhibited extraordinary symptoms of illumination, and tried to take the veil before she was of age to dispose of herself; but her parents obliged her to marry a gentleman to whom she had been betrothed in nonage. She was a widow at the age of twenty-eight; when, distinguishing herself in the way of contemplation and prayer, and making many converts to quietism, complaints were made of her spiritualism, and she was by order of the king confined for eight months. At the end of this period she was discharged; but being afterwards involved in the persecution of the Archbishop of Cambrai, she was thrown into the Bastille, where she underwent many examinations; but nothing being made out against her, she once more obtained Guyon de ed her liberty, and lived in private till her death, which Morveau happened in 1717. Madame Guyon spent her latter years in mystical reveries; covering her tables, ceilings, and every part of her residence, with the sallies of a visionary imagination.

It is by no means proved that the Vie de Madame Guyon, écrite par elle-même, which was printed after her death, is entirely of her composition. It seems indeed to have been composed from different memoirs furnished by herself, first, to the official or judge of the bishop's court, Cheron, and then to the Bishop of Meaux at the time of the conferences of Issy. These materials, collected by a redacteur still more mystical than herself, appeared at Cologne, 1720, in three vols. 12mo. The verses of Madame Guyon, or at least those which are attributed to her, were collected and published at Amsterdam, 1689, in five vols. 8vo, under the title of Recueil de Poésies Spirituelles; a collection which was freely translated into English by William Cowper. This lady is also believed to have been the author of Cantiques Spirituels, ou Emblèmes sur l'Amour divin, in five volumes; and La Bible traduite en Français, avec des Explications et des Réflexions qui regardent la Vie intérieure, Cologne, 1715, in twenty vols. 8vo. Her treatise on Spiritual Torrents, after having been long circulated in manuscript, was printed, for the first time, in her Opuscules Spirituels, Cologne, 1704, in 12mo, with a preface describing her person. Besides these, her Lettres Spirituelles form four vols. in 8vo; so that her works extend in all to thirty-nine volumes, which, however, are scarcely read nowadays except from curiosity. (See the article Fenelon.)