FOOTNOTES:
[134] Cf. the preceding chapter, p. 140. See also Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne, Tom. I, p. 317, par. M. Delambre, Paris, 1817.
[135] "Calor etiam solis in hieme maior est sub terra quam super terram, quod si tunc frigus tantum esset sub terra quam super terram, vel si in æstate calor tantus esset sub terra quantus est super terram, de immoderatione ista terra tota scinderetur." Hildegardis Causæ et Curæ, p. 7, Lipsiæ, 1903.
[136] Commentaire de Theon d'Alexandrie, p. X, translated by the Abbé Halma, Paris, 1882.
[137] "Enfin de leur faire connoistre qu'elles ne sont pas incapable de l'estude, si elles s'en vouloient donner la peine puisqu'entre le cerveau d'une femme et celui d'un homme il n'y a aucune difference." Cf. Journal de Savans, Tom. III, p. 304, à Amsterdam, 1687.
D'ou vient qu'elle a l'œil troublé et le teint si terni?
C'est que sur le calcul, dit-on, de Cassini,
Un astrolabe à la main, elle a, dans la gouttière,
A suivre Jupiter passé la nuit entière.
[139] "Celebre inter observatores hujus ævi nomen adeptus est Godfredus Kirchius, astronomus nuper regius in Societate Scienciarum Berlinensi; mense Julio A, 1710 mortuus. Ejus vidua, Maria Magdalena Winckelmannia, non minore in observando et calculo astronomico dexteritate pollet, ac in utroque labore maritum, cum viveret, fideliter juvit ... quod laudi ducitur fœminæ ea animo comprehendisse, quæ sine ingenii vi studiique assiduitate non comprehenduntur," Acta Eruditorum, pp. 78, 79, Lipsiæ, 1712.
[140] Préface Historique to Principes Mathématiques de la Philosophie Naturelle par feue Madame la Marquise du Chastellet, Tom. I, p. V, Paris, 1759.
[141] The Unpublished Correspondence of Madame du Deffand, Vol. I, pp. 202-203, London, 1810.
[142] Mme. du Deffand's venomous letter, somewhat abridged, reads as follows: "Imagine a tall, hard and withered woman, narrow-chested, with large limbs, enormous feet, a very small head, a thin face, a pointed nose, two small sea-green eyes, her color dark, her complexion florid, her mouth flat, her teeth set far apart and very much decayed; there is the figure of the beautiful Émilie, a figure with which she is so well pleased that she spares nothing for the sake of setting it off. Her manner of dressing her hair, her adornments, her top-knots, her jewelry, all are in profusion; but, as she wishes to be lovely in spite of nature, and as she wishes to appear magnificent in spite of fortune, she is obliged, in order to obtain superfluities, to go without necessaries such as under-garments and other trifles.
"She was born with sufficient intellect, and the desire to appear as though she had a great deal made her prefer to study the most abstract sciences rather than more general and pleasant branches of knowledge. She thought she would gain a greater reputation by this peculiarity and a more decided superiority over other women.
"She did not limit herself to this ambition. She wished to be a princess as well, and she became so, not by the grace of God nor by that of the King, but by her own act. This absurdity went on like the others. One became accustomed to regard her as a princess of the theatre, and one almost forgot that she was a woman of rank.
"Madame worked so hard to appear what she was not that no one knew what she really was. Even her faults were perhaps not natural. They may have had something to do with her pretensions, her want of respect with regard to the state of princess, her dullness in that of savante, and her stupidity in that of a jolie femme.
"However much of a celebrity Mme. du Châtelet may be, she would not be satisfied if she were not celebrated, and that is what she desired in becoming the friend of M. de Voltaire. To him she owes the éclat of her life, and it is to him that she will owe immortality." See Lettres de la Marquise du Deffand à Horace Walpole, Tom. I, pp. 200-201, Paris, 1824.
As a contrast to this atrocious caricature, it is but due to the memory of Mme. du Châtelet to give her portrait by Voltaire, to whom she was ever the beautiful, the charming Urania, the
"Vaste et puissante génie,
Minerve de la France, immortelle Émilie."
It is contained in the following verses:
"L'esprit sublime et la delicatesse,
L'oubli charmante de sa propre beauté
L'amitié tendre et l'amour emporté
Sont les attraits de ma belle maîtresse."
If the whole truth were known, it would, doubtless, be found somewhere between the above extreme and contradictory views, and the cause of the caustic statements of Mesdames de Staël and du Deffand would probably be found to be quite accurately expressed in the first part of Voltaire's Epistle on Calumny, which was written about the beginning of his particular relationship with "the divine Émilie." The first lines of this epistle, as translated by Smollett, are:
"Since beautiful, 'twill be your fate,
Emelia, to incur much hate;
Almost one-half of human race
Will even curse you to your face;
Possesst of genius, noblest fire,
With fear you will each breast inspire;
As you too easily confide,
You'll often be betrayed, belied;
You ne'er of virtue made parade,
To hypocrites no court you've paid,
Therefore, of Calumny beware,
Foe to the virtuous and the fair."
[143] In his work on Comets, Clairaut at first gave Mme. Lepaute full credit for her work which had been of such inestimable service to himself; but, in order to gratify a woman who, having pretensions without knowledge, was very jealous of the superior attainments of Mme. Lepaute, he had the weakness subsequently to suppress his generous tribute to merit. Commenting on this strange conduct of his assistant, Lalande expresses himself as follows: "We know that it is not rare to see ordinary women depreciate those who have knowledge, tax them with pedantry and contest their merit in order to avenge themselves upon them for their superiority. The latter are so few in number that the others have almost succeeded in making them conceal their acquirements."
[144] Bibliographie Astronomique, pp. 676-687, par Jérôme de la Lande, Paris, 1803.
[145] Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel, p. 144, by Mrs. John Herschel, London, 1879.
[146] So sensitive was Miss Herschel in her old age regarding the reputation of her brother, William, who had always been her idol and the one in whom she had concentrated all her affection, that she came to look askance at every person and thing that seemed calculated to dull the glory of his achievements. Thus her niece, in writing to Sir John Herschel, after her death, declares: "She looked upon progress in science as so much detraction from her brother's fame; and, even your investigations would have become a source of estrangement had she been with you." In a letter to Sir John Herschel, written four years before her death, she exhibits, in an amusing fashion, her jealous spirit anent the great telescope of Lord Rosse. "They talk of nothing here at the clubs," she writes, "but of the great mirror and the great man who made it. I have but one answer for all—Der Kerl ist ein Narr—the fellow is a fool."
Even "Every word said in her own praise seemed to be so much taken away from the honour due to her brother. She had lived so many years in companionship with a truly great man, and in the presence of the unfathomable depths of the starry heavens, that praise of herself seemed childish exaggeration." And notwithstanding the honor and recognition which she received from learned men and learned societies for her truly remarkable astronomical labors, her dominant idea was always the same—"I am nothing. I have done nothing. All I am, all I know, I owe to my brother. I am only a tool which he shaped to his use—a well-trained puppy-dog would have done as much." Op. cit., pp. IX, 335 and 346.
[147] Op. cit., p. 224.
[148] Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel, ut. sup., pp. 226-227.
[149] Maria Mitchell, Life, Letters and Journals, compiled by Phebe Mitchell Kendall, p. 267 et seq., Boston, 1896.
[150] Miss Klumpke, the reader may be interested in knowing, belongs to a singularly gifted family. Her sister, Augusta, is a distinguished physician and an authority on nervous diseases. Hers is the glory to be the first woman permitted, after an exceptionally severe examination, to serve as interne in the Paris hospitals. Julia, her youngest sister, who achieved distinction as a violinist with Ysaye, was one of the first to pass the examination required of women entering the Paris Lycées, while Anna, the eldest, has won fame as an artist, and as the friend, heiress and executrix of France's famous daughter, Rosa Bonheur.