Woman in Science Part 31

In the preceding chapters we have had notable examples of women whose beneficent influence and cooperation have enabled distinguished men of science to achieve results that would otherwise have been impossible.

Among these--to mention only a few--were Mme. Lavoisier and Mme. Curie in chemistry, Mme. Lapaute and Miss Herschel in astronomy, Mrs. Aga.s.siz and Mme. Coudreau in natural science and exploration, Mme. Schliemann and Mme. Dieulafoy in archaeology.

One of the most ill.u.s.trious women inspirers of France was Catherine de Parthenay, who, after attaining womanhood, became the brilliant Princess de Rohan, and was recognized as one of the most learned and most remarkable women of the sixteenth century. As a young girl she exhibited rare intelligence and displayed special apt.i.tude for the exact sciences.

For this reason her mother saw to it that her child had the benefit of instruction under the ablest masters that could be secured.

The most noted of these was Francois Viete, the learned French mathematician, who is justly regarded as the father of modern algebra.

In his day, especially in the higher cla.s.ses of society, the education given to women was often more thorough than that afforded to men. For this reason, too, women not infrequently became distinguished in astronomy, which was then usually known under the name of astrology.

Viete, in initiating his gifted pupil into the principles of this science, became himself so enthusiastic a student of astronomy that he determined to prepare an elaborate work on the subject--something on the plan of the _Almagest_ of Ptolemy--a work which he designated _Harmonic.u.m Celeste_.

In order that the instruction given his pupil might not be lacking in precision, Viete wrote out, with the most scrupulous care, the lessons designed for her benefit. The ma.n.u.scripts containing these lessons were long preserved among the family archives, but nearly all of them were unfortunately consigned to the flames during the French Revolution in 1793.

No one was more interested in Viete's mathematical researches--those researches which have rendered him so famous in the history of science--than was the Princess de Rohan. The former pupil was the first to receive notice of her distinguished master's discoveries and the first to congratulate him on his success.

It was to this cherished pupil, who always remained his friend and benefactress, that Viete dedicated his important work on mathematical a.n.a.lysis ent.i.tled _In Artem a.n.a.lyticam Isagoge_. The words of the dedication are a tribute to the learning and the genius of the pupil as well as an expression of the grat.i.tude of the teacher. It reads as follows:

"It is to you especially, august daughter of Melusine, that I am indebted for my proficiency in mathematics, to attain which I was encouraged by your love for this science, as well as your great knowledge of it, and by your mastery of all other sciences, which one cannot too much admire in a person of your n.o.ble lineage."[240]

More interesting, and at the same time more pathetic, were the relations of an Italian nun, Sister Maria Celeste, and the man whom Byron so happily designates as

"The starry Galileo, with his woes."

Sister Celeste, who was a Franciscan nun in the convent of St. Matthew, in Arcetri, was the great astronomer's eldest and favorite daughter.

They were greatly attached to each other, and the gentle religieuse was not only her father's confidante and consoler in the hours of trial and affliction, but was also his inspirer and ever-vigilant guardian angel.

She watched over him, not as a daughter over a father, but as a mother watches over an only son.[241]

All this is beautifully exhibited in her one hundred and twenty-four letters which were published in 1891 for the first time. A few of these letters, it is true, were published as early as 1852 by Alberi, in his edition of the complete works of Galileo, and others were given to the press at subsequent dates; but the world had to wait more than two and a half centuries for a complete collection of all the known letters of this remarkable daughter of an ill.u.s.trious sire.

These doc.u.ments are precious for the insight they give into the sterling character of a n.o.ble woman, but they are beyond price as sources of information respecting the tenderly affectionate relations which existed between her and one of the foremost men of science, not only of his own age, but of all time. They show how he made her his confidante in all his undertakings, and how she was his amanuensis, his counselor, his inspirer; how her love was an incentive to the work that won for him undying fame; how she was his support and comfort when suffering from the jealousy of rivals or the enmity of those who were opposed to his teachings.

These letters cover a period of nearly eleven years--the most momentous years of her father's busy and troubled life. Now playful, quaint, elfish, then serious, vivid, confidential, they show that the writer's intelligence was as rare as her nature was loyal and affectionate. At times she half-apologizes for the length of a letter, "but you must remember," she adds in excuse, "that I must put into this paper everything that I should chatter to you in a week."

No daughter was ever prouder of her father or loved him with a more abounding love. "I pride myself," she says, "that I love and revere my dearest father more, by far, than others love their fathers, and I clearly perceive that, in return, he far surpa.s.ses the greater part of other fathers in the love which he has for me, his loved daughter."

When he was ill she prepared dishes and confections that she knew would tempt his appet.i.te. But she was not satisfied with looking after the welfare of his body, for she took occasion to send with the cakes and preserved fruits a sermonette for the benefit of his soul.

An extract from one of her letters gives an insight into the character of this devoted daughter, who, Galileo says in a letter to his friend, Elia Diodati, "was a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness and most tenderly attached to me."

"Of the preserved citron you ordered," she writes him on the nineteenth of December, 1625, "I have only been able to do a small quant.i.ty. I feared the citrons were too shriveled for preserving, and so they proved. I send two baked pears for these days of vigil. But the greatest treat of all I send you is a rose, which ought to please you extremely, seeing what a rarity it is at this season. And with the rose you must accept its thorns, which represent the bitter pa.s.sion of Our Lord, while the green leaves represent the hope we may entertain that, through the same sacred pa.s.sion, we, having pa.s.sed through the darkness of this short winter of our mortal life, may attain to the brightness and felicity of an eternal spring in heaven, which may our gracious G.o.d grant us through His mercy."[242]

She always insists upon his keeping her fully informed about his studies and discoveries. She is particular, also, about receiving without delay copies of his latest publications. "I beg you," she writes in one of her letters, "to be so kind as to send me that book of yours which has just been published, _Il Saggiatore_, so that I may read it; for I have a great desire to see it."

On another occasion, after his difficulties with the Holy Office, when she fancies her father is not keeping her fully informed about the subject matter of his writings, she implores him to tell her on what topic he is engaged, "if," she archly adds, "it be something I can understand and you are not afraid that I will blab."

And on still another occasion Sister Celeste reminds her father of a promise of his to send her a small telescope. From this we should infer that she desired to repeat the observations on the heavenly bodies that had created such a sensation in the learned world, and which had given occasion for such acrimonious controversy.

In one of her earlier letters Sister Celeste calls her father's attention to a promise of his to spend an afternoon with her and her sister Arcangela, also a nun in the same convent. And, referring to one of the regulations of the Franciscan cloister, she playfully observes: "You will be able to sup in the parlor, since the excommunication is for the table cloth"--O Sister Celeste!--"and not for the meats thereon."

What would one not give for a stenographic report of the conversations held that afternoon in the convent garden of Arcetri, as father and daughters leisurely strolled through the peaceful enclosure, all quite oblivious of the fleeting hours? How interesting would be a faithful record of the confidences exchanged at the frugal meal in the evening in the humble parlor of S. Matteo! We would willingly exchange many of the famous _Dialoghi di Galileo Galilei_ for a verbatim report of what pa.s.sed between Sister Celeste and the father whom she so idolized.[243]

Judging from her letters, she had many questions to ask him about his studies, his experiments, his discoveries, his books, as well as about more personal and domestic matters.

Although there is no doc.u.mentary proof of the fact, yet there is every reason to believe that Galileo had taken personal charge of the education of this, his favorite daughter. She shared his taste for science and inherited not a little of his genius. Such being the case, we may well believe that a faithful account of their conversations of that day would be not only of surpa.s.sing interest, but would also throw a flood of light on many questions now ill understood. They would certainly tend to fill up the numerous lacunae caused by the disappearance of the letters of Galileo, which he wrote in answer to those of his ever-cherished daughter.[244]

They would also show more clearly than any facts now available what an unbounded influence the gentle nun had over the greatest intellect of his time, and would, more clearly than anything in her correspondence, exhibit Sister Celeste as the efficient co-worker and the abiding inspirer of the father of modern physics and astronomy.

But, although we have no record of this soul-communion between father and daughter on the occasion in question; although we are deprived of the invaluable letters which he wrote in reply to hers, we are, nevertheless, from the evidence at hand, justified in regarding this unique pair as being ever one in heart, aspirations and ideals, and comparable in their mutual influence on each other with any of those famous men and women who, through achievement on the one side and inspiration and collaboration on the other, have ever been recognized as the greatest benefactors of their race.

One of Galileo's countrymen, G. B. Clemente de Nelli, was right when he declared that, had it not been for the a.s.sistance and consolation which he received from Sister Celeste, Galileo would have succ.u.mbed to the blows that were showered upon him during the most trying part of his career. An indication of this is given in one of the letters written by Sister Celeste in the last year of her life.

While in a fit of despondency and imagining his friends had forgotten him, Galileo, in a moment of bitterness, wrote in a letter to his daughter: "My name is erased from the book of the living." "Nay," came at once Sister Celeste's cheering reply, "say not that your name is struck _de libro viventium_, for it is not so; neither in the greater part of the world nor in your own country. Indeed, it seems to me that, if for a brief moment your name and fame were clouded, they are now restored to greater brightness, at which I am much astonished, for I know that generally _Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua_. I am afraid, however, if I begin quoting Latin, I shall fall into some barbarism. But, of a truth, you are loved and esteemed here more than ever."[245]

How much Sister Celeste was to her father in every way was not known until after her premature death in her thirty-fourth year. He was never the same man afterward. Disconsolate and broken, he fancied he heard the voice of the daughter he so fondly loved resounding through the house.

Brooding over his great loss, the heart-broken old man writes to a friend in words of infinite pathos, "_Mi sento continuamente chiamare della mia diletta figlioula_--I continually hear myself called by my dearly beloved daughter." The eighth of January, 1642, he answered her call and went to join her in a better world.

Two other noted investigators, one of them a contemporary of Galileo, owed much to the inspiration and encouragement which they received from women. These were Descartes and Leibnitz. And the women that had the most influence on them were representatives of royal families, who were famous in their day for their love and knowledge and the extent of their intellectual attainments.

One of the most noted of these was Elizabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine. She was the favorite pupil of Descartes, and it was to her that he dedicated his great work, _Principia Philosophiae_. She, he declared, understood him better than any one else he had ever met, for "in her alone were united those generally separated talents for metaphysics and for mathematics which are so characteristically operative in the Cartesian system."[246]

To this earnest student who was always absorbed in the mysteries of metaphysics and the problems of geometry, Descartes could refuse nothing. When distance separated them he continued his instructions by correspondence. One of the results of this correspondence was his treatise on _Pa.s.sions de l'ame_, in which he develops certain ethical views suggested by the _Vita Beata_ of Seneca.

Another distinguished pupil of Descartes who exercised a marked influence over him was the celebrated daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, Queen Christine of Sweden. A mistress of many languages and an ardent votary of science, she was a munificent patron of scientific men, a great number of whom she had attracted to her court. The most distinguished of these was Descartes, to whom she was deeply attached, and with whom she had planned great things for science in Sweden, when his career was cut short by a premature death.

Not the least influence on the intellectual life of Leibnitz was Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Prussia and mother of Frederick the Great. She was the niece of Descartes' ill.u.s.trious friend, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and, as the pupil of Leibnitz, quite as gloriously a.s.sociated as had been her aunt with the father of Cartesianism.

Leibnitz was as distinguished by genius as his royal pupil was by birth.

Besides being eminent as a philosopher and a statesman, he shared with Newton the honor of discovering the calculus. Huxley p.r.o.nounced him "a man of science, in the modern sense, of the first rank," while the King of Prussia declared of him, "He represents in himself a whole academy."

Through the cooperation of Sophia Charlotte he founded the Berlin Academy of Sciences. For her he wrote one of the most notable of his productions--his famed _Theodicy_.

It would be difficult to estimate the influence of this learned queen on Leibnitz, but it was undoubtedly greater than any other single influence whatever. Her death was the greatest loss he ever suffered, and when she was no more, the beautiful Berlin suburb, Charlottenburg--named after her--where he had been so happy in reading and philosophizing with his ill.u.s.trious pupil, lost all attraction for him.

A more striking ill.u.s.tration of woman's helpfulness is afforded in the case of Francois Huber, the celebrated Swiss naturalist. Although blind from his seventeenth year, he was able to carry on researches requiring the keenest eyesight and the closest observation. This he was able to do through the affectionate cooperation of his devoted wife, Marie Aimee.

When her friends tried to dissuade her from marrying Huber, to whom she had been engaged for some time, saying he had become blind, her reply was worthy of her generous and n.o.ble nature: "He then needs me more than ever."

During the forty years of their married life her tenderness and devotion to her husband were as unfailing as they were inspiring. He worked through the eyes and hands of his wife as if they were his own. She was his reader, his observer, his secretary, his enthusiastic collaborator in all those investigations that have rendered him so famous. The blind man devised the experiments to be made, and the quick-witted wife executed them and recorded the observations which supplied the material for his epoch-making work on bees, ent.i.tled _Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles_. So accurate are his descriptions of the habits of the winged creatures, to the study of which he devoted the best years of his life, that one would think his great work was the production, not of a man who had been blind for a quarter of a century, when he wrote it, but of one who was gifted with exceptional keenness of vision and powers of observation.

"As long as she lived," exclaimed the great naturalist after his trusty Aimee's death, "I was not sensible of the misfortune of being blind."

Nay, more. During her lifetime, when, though sightless, he was always so happy in his work, he went so far as to aver that he would be miserable were he to recover his eyesight. "I should not know," he declared, "to what an extent a person in my condition could be beloved. Besides, to me, my wife is always young, fresh and pretty, which is no light matter." He could truly say of her, as Wordsworth said of his sister Dorothy,

"She gave me eyes, she gave me ears,

And love and thought and joy."

We hear much of the achievements of Galvani and Faraday in the domain of electricity and electromagnetism, but little is said of the women to whom they were so greatly indebted for their success and fame.