Her interest was at once aroused; and she resolved forthwith to seek information regarding the curious lines and letters which had so excited her curiosity. "Unfortunately," she tells us, "none of our acquaintances or relatives knew anything of science or natural history; nor, had they done so, should I have had courage to ask of them a question, for I should have been laughed at."
Finally she was able to secure a copy of a work on algebra and a Euclid. Although without a teacher she immediately applied herself to master the contents of these two works, but she had to do so by stealth in bed after she had retired for the night. When her father learned of what was going on, he said to the girl's mother, "Peg, we must put a stop to this, or we shall have Mary in a straightjacket one of these days." The mother, who had no more sympathy with her daughter's scientific pursuits than had the father, and, fully convinced, like the great majority of her sex, that woman's duties should be confined to the affairs of the household, strove to divert her daughter's mind from her "unladylike" pursuits. But her efforts were ineffectual. The young woman, in spite of all obstacles and opposition, contrived to continue her cherished studies; and, through her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, afterward her father-in-law, she was able to become proficient in both Latin and Greek. When she was thirty-three years of age she became the happy possessor of a small library of mathematical works. "I had now," she writes, "the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity; concealment was no longer necessary, nor was it attempted. I was considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved of by many, especially by some members of my own family."[128]
In March, 1827, Mrs. Somerville received a letter from Lord Brougham, who had heard of her remarkable acquirements, begging her to prepare for English readers a popular exposition of Laplace's great work—Mécanique Céleste. She was overwhelmed with astonishment at this request, for her modesty made her diffident of her powers; and she felt that her self-acquired knowledge of science was so far inferior to that of university men that it would be sheer presumption for her to undertake the task proposed to her. She was, however, finally persuaded to make the attempt, with the proviso that her manuscript should be consigned to the flames unless it fulfilled the expectations of those who urged its production.
In less than a year her work, to which she gave the name of The Mechanism of the Heavens, was ready for the press. But it was far more than a translation and epitome, as originally intended by its projector, Lord Brougham; for, in addition to the views of Laplace, it contained the independent opinions of the translator respecting the propositions of the illustrious French savant. No sooner was the work published than Mrs. Somerville found herself famous. She had, as Sir John Herschel expressed it, "written for posterity," and her book placed her at once among the leading scientific writers and thinkers of the day. She was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same time as Caroline Herschel, they being the first two women thus honored. Her bust, by Chantry, was placed in the great hall of the Royal Society, and she was made a member of many other scientific societies in Europe and America. In recognition of her services to science she was granted by the government a pension of £200 a year—a sum which was shortly afterward increased to £300. In addition to all this, Mrs. Somerville had the satisfaction of learning that her work was so highly esteemed by Dr. Whewell, the great master of Trinity, that it was, chiefly on his recommendation, introduced as a textbook in the University of Cambridge and prescribed as "an essential work to those students who aspire to the highest places in the examinations." What Mme. du Châtelet had done for Newton, Mrs. Somerville did for Laplace.
Among other books from the pen of this highly gifted woman is her Connection of the Physical Sciences and a work entitled Physical Geography, which, together with the Mechanism of the Heavens, was the object of the "profound admiration" of Humboldt. Then there is a number of very abstruse monographs on mathematical subjects, one of which is a treatise of two hundred and forty-six pages On Curves and Surfaces of Higher Orders, which, she tells us, she "wrote con amore to fill up her morning hours while spending the winter in Southern Italy."
Her last work was a treatise On Molecular and Microscopic Science embodying the most recondite investigations on the subject. This book, begun after she had passed her eightieth birthday, occupied her for many years and was not ready for publication until she was close upon her ninetieth year. Her last occupations, continued until the day of her death at the advanced age of ninety-two, were the reading of a book on Quaternions and the review and completion of a volume On the Theory of Differences.
Like her illustrious friend, the great Humboldt, Mary Somerville was possessed of extraordinary physical vigor, and, like him, she retained her mental powers unimpaired until the last. And like her great rival in mathematics, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, she was always "beautifully womanly." Her scientific and literary occupations did not cause her to neglect the duties of her household or to disregard "the graceful and artistic accomplishments of an elegant woman of the world." Her daughter Martha writes of her: "It would be almost incredible were I to describe how much my mother contrived to do in the course of the day. When my sister and I were small children, although busily engaged in writing for the press, she used to teach us for three hours in the morning, besides managing her house carefully, reading the newspapers—for she was always a keen and, I must add, a liberal politician—and the most important new books on all subjects, grave and gay. In addition to this, she freely visited and received her friends.... Gay and cheerful company was a pleasant relaxation after a hard day's work."[129]
The life of Mary Somerville, like that of Gaetana Agnesi, proves that the pursuit of science is not, as so often asserted, incompatible with domestic and social duties. It also disposes of the fallacy, so generally entertained, that intellectual labor is detrimental to the health of women and antagonistic to longevity. The truth is that it is yet to be demonstrated that intellectual work, even of the severest kind, is, per se, more deleterious to women than to those of the stronger sex.
Scarcely less remarkable as a mathematician was Mrs. Somerville's distinguished contemporary, Janet Taylor, who was known as the "Mrs. Somerville of the Marine World." She was the author of numerous works on navigation and nautical astronomy which in their day were highly prized by seafaring men. In recognition of her valuable services to the marine world she was placed on the civil list of the British government.
As an eminent mathematician as well as a "representative of the highest intellectual accomplishments to which women have attained," Sónya Kovalévsky will ever occupy an honored place among the votaries of science. In many respects this richly endowed daughter of Holy Russia was par excellence the woman of genius of the latter half of the nineteenth century.