Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville Part 9

... As you contemplate separate publication, and as the attention of many will be turned to a work from _your_ pen who will just possess quantum enough of mathematical knowledge to be able to read the first chapter without being able to follow you into its application, and as these, moreover, are the very people who will think themselves privileged to criticise and use their privilege with the least discretion, I cannot recommend too much clearness, fulness, and order in the _expose_ of the principles. Were I you, I would devote to this first part at least double the s.p.a.ce you have done.

Your familiarity with the results and formulae has led you into what is extremely natural in such a case--a somewhat hasty pa.s.sing over what, to a beginner, would prove insuperable difficulties; and if I may so express it, a sketchiness of outline (as a painter you will understand my meaning, and what is of more consequence, see how it is to be remedied).

You have adopted, I see, the principle of virtual velocity, and the principle of d'Alembert, rather as separate and independent principles to be used as instruments of investigation than as convenient theories, flowing themselves from the general law of force and equilibrium, to be first _proved_ and then remembered as compact statements in a form fit for use. The demonstration of the principle of virtual velocities is so easy and direct in Laplace that I cannot imagine anything capable of rendering it plainer than he has done. But a good deal more explanation of what _is_ virtual velocity, &c., would be advantageous--and virtual velocities should be kept quite distinct from the arbitrary variations represented by the sign [Greek: d].

With regard to the _principle of d'Alembert_--take my advice and explode it altogether. It is the most awkward and involved statement of a plain dynamical equation that ever puzzled student. I speak feelingly and with a sense of irritation at the whirls and vortices it used to cause in my poor head when first I entered on this subject in my days of studentship. I know not a single case where its application does not create obscurity--nay _doubt_. Nor can a case ever occur where any such principle is called for. The general law that the change of motion is proportional to the moving force and takes place in its direction, provided we take care always to regard the _reaction_ of curves, surfaces, obstacles, &c., as so many real moving forces of (for a time) unknown magnitude, will always help us out of any dynamical sc.r.a.pe we may get into. Laplace, page 20, Mec. Cel. art. 7, is a little obscure here, and in deriving his equation (_f_) a page of explanation would be well bestowed.

One thing let me recommend, if you use as principles either this, or that of virtual velocities, or any other, state them broadly and in general terms.... You will think me, I fear, a rough critic, but I think of Horace's _good critic_,

Fiet Aristarchus: nec dicet, cur ego amic.u.m Offendam in nugis? Hae nugae seria ducent In mala,

and what we can both now laugh at, and you may, if you like, burn as nonsense (I mean these remarks), would come with a very different kind of force from some sneering reviewer in the plenitude of his triumph at the detection of a slip of the pen or one of those little inaccuracies which _humana parum cavit natura_....

Very faithfully yours, J. HERSCHEL.

[About the same time my father received a letter from Dr. Whewell, afterwards Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, dated 2nd November, 1831, in which he says:--]

"I beg you to offer my best thanks to Mrs. Somerville for her kind present. I shall have peculiar satisfaction in possessing it as a gift of the author, a book which I look upon as one of the most remarkable which our age has produced, which would be highly valuable from anyone, and which derives a peculiar interest from its writer. I am charged also to return the thanks of the Philosophical Society here for the copy presented to them. I have not thought it necessary to send the official letter containing the acknowledgment, as Mrs. Somerville will probably have a sufficient collection of specimens of such character. I have also to thank her on the part of our College for the copy sent to the library. I am glad that our young mathematicians in Trinity will have easy access to the book, which will be very good for them as soon as they can read it. When Mrs. Somerville shows herself in the field which we mathematicians have been labouring in all our lives, and puts us to shame, she ought not to be surprised if we move off to other ground, and betake ourselves to poetry. If the fashion of 'commendatory verses' were not gone by, I have no doubt her work might have appeared with a very pretty collection of well-deserved poetical praises in its introductory pages. As old customs linger longest in places like this, I hope she and you will not think it quite extravagant to send a single sonnet on the occasion.

"Believe me, "Faithfully yours, "W. WHEWELL."

TO MRS. SOMERVILLE,

ON HER "MECHANISM OF THE HEAVENS."

Lady, it was the wont in earlier days When some fair volume from a valued pen, Long looked for, came at last, that grateful men Hailed its forthcoming in complacent lays: As if the Muse would gladly haste to praise That which her mother, Memory, long should keep Among her treasures. Shall such usage sleep With us, who feel too slight the common phrase For our pleased thoughts of you, when thus we find That dark to you seems bright, perplexed seems plain, Seen in the depths of a pellucid mind, Full of clear thought, pure from the ill and vain That cloud the inward light? An honoured name Be yours; and peace of heart grow with your growing fame.

[Professor Peac.o.c.k, afterwards Dean of Ely, in a letter, dated February 14th, 1832, thanked my mother for a copy of the "Mechanism of the Heavens."]

LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PEAc.o.c.k TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

"I consider it to be a work which will contribute greatly to the extension of the knowledge of physical astronomy, in this country, and of the great a.n.a.lytical processes which have been employed in such investigations. It is with this view that I consider it to be a work of the greatest value and importance. Dr. Whewell and myself have already taken steps to introduce it into the course of our studies at Cambridge, and I have little doubt that it will immediately become an essential work to those of our students who aspire to the highest places in our examinations."

[On this my mother remarks:--]

I consider this as the highest honour I ever received, at the time I was no less sensible of it, and was most grateful. I was surprised and pleased beyond measure to find that my book should be so much approved of by Dr. Whewell, one of the most eminent men of the age for science and literature; and by Professor Peac.o.c.k, a profound mathematician, who with Herschel and Babbage had, a few years before, first introduced the calculus as an essential branch of science into the University of Cambridge.

In consequence of this decision the whole edition of the "Mechanism of the Heavens," amounting to 750 copies, was sold chiefly at Cambridge, with the exception of a very few which I gave to friends; but as the preface was the only part of the work that was intelligible to the general reader, I had some copies of it printed separately to give away.

I was astonished at the success of my book; all the reviews of it were highly favourable; I received letters of congratulation from many men of science. I was elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same time as Miss Caroline Herschel. To be a.s.sociated with so distinguished an astronomer was in itself an honour. Mr. De Morgan, to whom I am indebted for many excellent mathematical works, was then secretary of the society, and announced to us the distinction conferred. The council of the Society ordered that a copy of the "Greenwich Observations" should be regularly sent to me.

[The _Academie des Sciences_ elected my mother's old friend M. Biot to draw up a report upon her "Mechanism of the Heavens," which he did in the most flattering terms, and upon my mother writing to thank him, replied as follows:--]

FROM M. BIOT TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

MADAME,

Revenu de Lyon depuis quelques jours, j'ai trouve a Paris les deux lettres dont vous avez daigne m'honorer, et j'ai recu egalement l'exemplaire de votre ouvrage que vous avez bien voulu joindre a la derniere. C'est etre mille fois trop bonne, Madame, que de me remercier encore de ce qui m'a fait tant de plaisir. En rendant compte de cet etonnant Traite, je remplissais d'abord un devoir, puisque l'Academie m'avait charge de le lire pour elle; mais ce devoir m'offrait un attrait que vous concevriez facilement, s'il vous etait possible de vous rappeler l'admiration vive et profonde que m'inspira il y a longtemps l'union si extraordinaire de tous les talens et de toutes les graces, avec les connaissances severes que nous autres hommes avions la folie de croire notre partage exclusif.

Ce qui me charma alors, Madame, je n'ai pas cesse depuis de m'en souvenir; et des rapports d'amitie qui me sont bien chers, ont encore, a votre inscu, fortifie ces sentimens. Jugez donc, Madame, combien j'etais heureux d'avoir a peindre ce que je comprenais si bien, et ce que j'avais vu avec un si vif interet. Le plus amusant pour moi de cette rencontre, c'etait de voir nos plus graves confreres, par exemple, Lacroix et Legendre, qui certes ne sont pas des esprits legers, ni galans d'habitude, ni faciles a emouvoir, me gourmander, comme ils le faisaient a chaque seance, de ce que je tardais tant a faire mon rapport, de ce que j'y mettais tant d'insouciance et si peu de grace; enfin, Madame, c'etait une conquete intellectuelle complete. Je n'ai pas manque de raconter cette circonstance comme un des fleurons de votre couronne. Je me suis ainsi acquitte envers eux; et quant a vous, Madame, d'apres la maniere dont vous parlez vous-meme de votre ouvrage, j'ai quelque esperance de l'avoir presente sous le point de vue ou vous semblez l'envisager. Mais, en vous rendant ce juste et sincere hommage et en l'inserant au Journal des Savants, je n'ai pas eu la precaution de demander qu'on m'en mit a part; aujourd'hui que la collection est tiree je suis aux regrets d'avoir ete si peu prevoyant. Au reste, Madame, il n'y a rien dans cet extrait que ce que pensent tous ceux qui vous connaissent, ou meme qui ont eu une seule fois le bonheur de vous approcher. Vos amis trouveront que j'ai exprime bien faiblement les charmes de votre esprit et de votre caractere; charmes qu'ils doivent apprecier d'autant mieux qu'ils en jouissent plus souvent; mais vous, Madame, qui etes indulgente, vous pardonnerez la faiblesse d'un portrait qui n'a pu etre fait que de souvenir.

J'ai l'honneur d'etre, avec le plus profond respect,

Madame, Votre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur, BIOT.

It was unanimously voted by the Royal Society of London, that my bust should be placed in their great Hall, and Chantrey was chosen as the sculptor. Soon after it was finished, Mr. Potter, a great ship-builder at Liverpool, who had just completed a fine vessel intended for the China and India trade, wrote to my friend, Sir Francis Beaufort, hydrographer of the Royal Navy, asking him if I would give him permission to call her the "Mary Somerville," and to have a copy of my bust for her figure-head. I was much gratified with this, as might be expected. The "Mary Somerville" sailed, but was never heard of again; it was supposed she had foundered during a typhoon in the China sea.

I was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy at Dublin, of the Bristol Philosophical Inst.i.tution, and of the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle of Geneva, which was announced to me by a very gratifying letter from Professor Prevost.

Our relations and others who had so severely criticized and ridiculed me, astonished at my success, were now loud in my praise. The warmth with which Somerville entered into my success deeply affected me; for not one in ten thousand would have rejoiced at it as he did; but he was of a generous nature, far above jealousy, and he continued through life to take the kindest interest in all I did.

I now received the following letter from Sir Robert Peel, informing me in the handsomest manner that he had advised the King to grant me a pension of 200_l._ a year:--

LETTER FROM SIR ROBERT PEEL TO MRS. SOMERVILLE.

WHITEHALL GARDENS _March, 1835_.

MADAM,

In advising the Crown in respect to the grant of civil pensions, I have acted equally with a sense of public duty and on the impulse of my own private feelings in recognising among the first claims on the Royal favour those which are derived from eminence in science and literature.

In reviewing such claims, it is impossible that I can overlook those which you have established by the successful prosecution of studies of the highest order, both from the importance of the objects to which they relate, and from the faculties and acquirements which they demand.

As my object is a public one, to encourage others to follow the bright example which you have set, and to prove that great scientific attainments are recognised among public claims, I prefer making a direct communication to you, to any private inquiries into your pecuniary circ.u.mstances, or to any proposal through a third party. I am enabled to advise His Majesty to grant to you a pension on the civil list of two hundred pounds per annum; and if that provision will enable you to pursue your labours with less of anxiety, either as to the present or the future, I shall only be fulfilling a public duty, and not imposing upon you the slightest obligation, by availing myself of your permission to submit such a recommendation to the King.

I have the honour to be, Madam, with the sincerest respect, ROBERT PEEL.

I was highly pleased, but my pleasure was of short duration, for the very next day a letter informed us that by the treachery of persons in whom we trusted, the last remains of our capital were lost. By the kindness of Lord John Russell, when he was Prime Minister, a hundred a-year was added to my pension, for which I was very grateful.

After the "Mechanism of the Heavens" was published, I was thrown out of work, and now that I had got into the habit of writing I did not know what to make of my spare time. Fortunately the preface of my book furnished me with the means of active occupation; for in it I saw such mutual dependence and connection in many branches of science, that I thought the subject might be carried to a greater extent.

There were many subjects with which I was only partially acquainted, and others of which I had no previous knowledge, but which required to be carefully investigated, so I had to consult a variety of authors, British and foreign. Even the astronomical part was difficult, for I had to translate a.n.a.lytical formulae into intelligible language, and to draw diagrams ill.u.s.trative thereof, and this occupied the first seven sections of the book. I should have been saved much trouble had I seen a work on the subject by Mr. Airy, Astronomer-Royal, published subsequently to my book.

My son, Woronzow Greig, had been educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was travelling on the Continent, when Somerville and I received an invitation from the Princ.i.p.al, Dr. Whewell, to visit the University. Mr.

Airy, then astronomer at Cambridge, now Astronomer-Royal at Greenwich, and Mrs. Airy kindly wished us to be their guests; but as the Observatory was at some distance from Cambridge, it was decided that we should have an apartment in Trinity College itself; an unusual favour where a lady is concerned. Mr. Sedgwick, the geologist, made the arrangements, received us, and we spent the first day at dinner with him. He is still alive[10]--one of my few coevals--either in Cambridge or England. The week we spent in Cambridge, receiving every honour from the heads of the University, was a period of which I have ever borne a proud and grateful remembrance.

[Professor Sedgwick wrote as follows to my father:--]

FROM PROFESSOR SEDGWICK TO DR. SOMERVILLE.