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.