8 JVOMAN IN SCIENCE 



One would think that this phenomenal outburst of men- 

 tal vigor, and especially the marvelous achievements of 

 Sappho, Corinna and those of their pupils and followers, 

 would have compelled the world for all subsequent time to 

 recognize the innate power of the female mind, and per- 

 ceive the wisdom not to say justice of according to 

 women the same advantages for the development of their 

 inborn gifts as were afforded to men. They had proved 

 that, under favorable conditions, there was essentially no 

 difference between the male and the female intellect, and 

 that genius knows no sex. And this they demonstrated 

 not only in poetry, but also in philosophy and in other 

 branches of human knowledge as well. 



Among those who had especially distinguished them- 

 selves were Hipparchia, the wife of the philosopher Crates ; 

 Themista, the wife of Leon and a correspondent of Epicu- 

 rus, who was pronounced "a sort of female Solon"; Peric- 

 tione, a disciple of Pythagoras, who distinguished herself 

 by her writings on Wisdom and The Harmony of Woman, 

 and Leontium, a disciple and companion of Epicurus, who 

 wrote a work against Theophrastus, which was pronounced 

 by Cicero a model of style. 



And was not the school of Pythagoras at Crotona con- 

 tinued after his death by his daughter and his wife, The- 

 ano ? And did not this fact alone manifest woman 's capac- 

 ity for abstract thought, as effectively as the Lesbian school 

 had demonstrated her talent for consummate verse? 1 



But it was all to no purpose. The comparative freedom 



Hamburg, 1734. See also the charming memoir " Sappho " by H. T. 

 Wharton, London, 1898, and Griechische Dicterinnen, by J. C. Poes- 

 tion, Vienna, 1876. 



i See Mulierum Grcecarum qua oratione prosa uses sunt fragmenta 

 et elogia Greece et Latine, by J. C. Wolf, London, 1739, Historia 

 Mulierum, Philosopharum, scriptore ^Egidio Menagio, Lugduni, 1690, 

 Griechische Philosophinnen, by J. C. Poestion, Norden, 1885, and Le 

 Donne alle Scuole del Filosofi Greci in Saggi e Note Critiche, by A. 

 Chiappelli, Bologna, 1895. 



