[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.
CHAPTER V
WOMEN IN PHYSICS
Physics, being one of the inductive sciences, received little attention until modern times. True, the Greeks were familiar with some of the fundamental facts of the mechanics of solids and fluids, and had some notions respecting the various physical forces; but their knowledge of what until recently was known as natural philosophy was extremely limited. Aristotle, Pythagoras and Archimedes were among the most successful investigators of their time respecting the laws and properties of matter, and contributed materially to the advancement of knowledge regarding the phenomena of the material universe; but the sum total of their information of what we now know as physics could be embodied in a few pages.
In view of the foregoing facts, we should not expect to find women engaged in the study, much less in the teaching, of physical science during ancient times. And yet, if we are to credit Boccaccio, who bases his statements on those of early Greek writers, there was at least one woman that won distinction by her knowledge of natural philosophy as early as the days of Socrates. In his work, De Laudibus Mulierum, which treats of the achievements of some of the illustrious representatives of the gentler sex, the genial author of the Decameron gives special praise to one Arete of Cyrene for the breadth and variety of her attainments. She was the daughter of Aristippus, the founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, and is represented as being a veritable prodigy of learning. For among her many claims to distinction she is said to have publicly taught natural and moral philosophy in the schools and academies of Attica for thirty-five years, to have written forty books, and to have counted among her pupils one hundred and ten philosophers. She was so highly esteemed by her countrymen that they inscribed on her tomb an epitaph which declared that she was the splendor of Greece and possessed the beauty of Helen, the virtue of Thirma, the pen of Aristippus, the soul of Socrates, and the tongue of Homer.[151]
This is high praise, indeed, but, when we recollect that Arete lived during the golden age of Greek learning and culture, that she had exceptional opportunities of acquiring knowledge in every department of intellectual effort; when we recall the large number of women who, in their time, distinguished themselves by their learning and accomplishment, and reflect on the advantages they enjoyed as pupils of the ablest teachers of the Lyceum, the Portico, and the Academy; when we remember further that they lived in an atmosphere of intelligence such as has since been unknown; when we call to mind the signal success that rewarded the pursuit of knowledge by the scores of women mentioned by Athenæus and other Greek writers; when we peruse the fragmentary notices of their achievements as recorded in the pages of more recent investigators regarding the educational facilities of a certain class of women living in Athens and the eminence which they attained in science, philosophy and literature, we can realize that the character and amount of Arete's work as an author and as a teacher have not been overestimated.
Living in an age of prodigious mental activity, when women, as well as men, were actuated by an abiding love of knowledge for its own sake, there is nothing surprising in finding a woman like Arete commanding the admiration of her countrymen by her learning and eloquence. For was not the learned and eloquent Aspasia her contemporary? And did not Theano, the wife of Pythagoras, take charge of her husband's school after his death; and does not antiquity credit her with being not only a successful teacher of philosophy, but also a writer of books of recognized value? Such being the case, what is there incredible in the statements made by ancient writers regarding the literary activity of Arete, and about her eminence as a teacher of science and philosophy? She was but one of many of the Greek women of her age that won renown by their gifts of intellect and by their contributions to the educational work of their time and country.
Better known than Arete, but probably not superior to her as a teacher or writer, was the illustrious Hypatia of Alexandria. She, too, like her distinguished predecessor in Athens, was an instructor in natural philosophy, as well as other branches of science. Of her we know more than we do of the daughter of Aristippus, but even our knowledge of the acquisitions and achievements of Hypatia is, unfortunately, extremely meager. We do, however, know from the historian, Socrates, and from Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, who was her pupil, that she was one of the most richly dowered women of all time. Born and educated in Alexandria when its schools and scholars were the most celebrated in the world, she was even at an early age regarded as a marvel of learning. For, not satisfied with excelling her father, Theon, in mathematics, of which he was a distinguished professor, she, as Suidas informs us, devoted herself to the study of philosophy with such success that she was soon regarded as the ablest living exponent of the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. "Her knowledge," writes the historian, Socrates, "was so great that she far surpassed all the philosophers of her time. And succeeding Plotinus, in the Platonic school which he had founded in the city of Alexandria, she taught all the branches of philosophy with such signal success that students flocked to her in crowds from all parts."[152] Her home, as well as her lecture room, was the resort of the most noted scholars of the day, and was, with the exception of the Library and the Museum, the most frequented intellectual center of the great city of learning and culture. Small wonder, then, that her contemporaries lauded her as an oracle and as the most brilliant luminary in Alexandria's splendid galaxy of thinkers and scholars—sapientis artis sidus integerrimum.