Triss. Every one knows my respect for the fairer sex, and that, if I render homage to the brightness of their eyes, I also honor the splendor of their intellect.
Phil. And our sex does you justice in this respect; but we will show to certain minds who treat us with proud contempt, that women also have knowledge; that, like men, they can hold learned meetings—regulated, too, by better rules; that they wish to unite what elsewhere is kept apart, join noble language to deep learning, reveal nature’s laws by a thousand experiments; and, on all questions proposed, admit every party, and ally themselves to none.
Triss. For order, I prefer peripateticism.
Phil. For abstractions, I love platonism.
Arm. Epicurus pleases me, for his tenets are solid.
Bél. I agree with the doctrine of atoms; but I find it difficult to understand a vacuum, and I much prefer subtile matter.
Triss. I quite agree with Descartes about magnetism.
Arm. I like his vortices.
Phil. And I, his falling worlds.
Arm. I long to see our assembly opened, and to distinguish ourselves by some great discovery.