2 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



Mrs. Somerville has herself described how it chanced 

 that the peculiar powers of her mind came first to be 

 recognised. She was in the habit of working at her 

 needle in the window-seat, while her brother took his 

 lessons in geometry and arithmetic. Fortunately (in 

 her case) the work which is regarded as most suitable 

 to the capacity of women leaves the mind unoccupied ; 

 and consequently there was nothing to prevent Mary 

 Fairfax from attending to the lessons intended for her 

 brother. She gradually became interested in the subject 

 of these lessons, and took care not only to be present 

 regularly, but to study her brother's books in her own 

 room. It happened that, on one occasion, young Fair- 

 fax failed to answer a question addressed to him, and 

 his sister involuntarily prompted him. The tutor was 

 naturally surprised that the quiet Mary Fairfax should 

 have any ideas beyond the needlework which had ap- 

 parently engaged her attention ; but, being a sensible 

 man, he was at the pains to ascertain the degree arid 

 soundness of her knowledge, and, finding that she had 

 really grasped the first principles of mathematics, he 

 6 took care that she should have liberty to go on in 

 her own way.' If a boy had shown similar fitness for 

 mathematical research, anxious attention would have 

 been devoted to the choice of books and teachers, 

 school and university ; but the case of a girl showing 

 such tastes seemed to be adequately met by according 

 to her the privilege of following her own devices. We 

 shall never know certainly, though it may be that 

 hereafter we shall be able to guess, what science lost 

 through the all but utter neglect of the unusual powers 



