Sometime in the early eighteenth century, an Anglo-Dutch woman named Theodora Wilkin began translating into English an important Mennonite devotional work, Jan Philipsz Schabaelje’s Wandelende Ziele met Adam, Noach, en Simon Cleophas. Her translation (or, better, adaptation) survives in a manuscript of about one thousand pages. Wilkin’s text sheds considerable light on the state of intellectual history and literary adaptation in the early eighteenth century. Specifically, Theodora Wilkin’s Wandering Soul foregrounds three concerns. 1) It demonstrates the centrality of women to providential history. 2) It reconciles biblical wisdom and natural philosophical knowledge. 3) It closely considers the Ancients, both insofar as they reflected divine truth and promulgated idolatry.

在 18 世纪早期的某个时候，一位名叫西奥多拉·威尔金的英荷女性开始将一部重要的门诺教派灵修作品翻译成英语，扬·菲利普斯·沙巴耶耶 (Jan Philipsz Schabaelje) 的Wandelende Ziele 遇到了亚当、诺亚 (Noach) 和西蒙·克利奥法斯 (Simon Cleophas)。她的翻译（或者更好的改编）保存在大约一千页的手稿中。威尔金的文本对 18 世纪早期思想史和文学改编的状况提供了相当多的启示。具体而言，西奥多拉威尔金的流浪灵魂突出了三个问题。1）它展示了女性在天意历史中的中心地位。2）它调和了圣经智慧和自然哲学知识。3) 它仔细考虑了古人，因为他们反映了神圣的真理并传播了偶像崇拜。