CHAPTER II 



WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS 



In a curious old black-letter volume entitled The BoJce of 

 the Cyte of Ladyes, published in England in 1521 by 

 Henry Pepwell, occurs the following passage: "I mer- 

 vayle gretely of the opynyon of some men that say they 

 wolde in no wyse that theyr daughters or wyves or kynnes- 

 women sholde lerne scyences, and that it sholde apayre 

 theyr codycyons. This thing is not to say ne to sustayne. 

 That the woman apayreth by conynge it is not well to 

 beleve. As the proverb saythe, 'that nature gyveth may 

 not be taken away.' ! 



The book from which this remarkable quotation is taken 

 is a translation of Christine de Pisan 's La Cite des Dames, 

 which was written early in the fifteenth century. It is a 

 capital defence against the slanderers of the gentler sex 

 and an armory of arguments for all time against those 

 men who declare that "women are fit for nothing but to 

 bear children and spin." It shows conclusively that 

 conynge knowledge far from tending to injure women 's 

 character apayre theyr condycyons as was asserted by 

 Christine's antagonists, contributes, on the contrary, to 

 elevate and ennoble them and to render them better mothers 

 and more useful members of society. 



Notwithstanding that it was written five hundred years 

 ago, and notwithstanding its "antiquated allegorical dress 

 and its quaint pre-Renaissance notions of history, " it is 

 in many of its aspects a surprisingly modern production. 

 The line of argument adopted by the writer is virtually the 



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