172 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



Mine, de la Sabliere evinced from an early age a special 

 aptitude for science, especially for physics and astronomy. 

 She studied mathematics under the eminent mathemati- 

 cian, Roberval, and at the age of thirty was famous. Her 

 home became the resort of learned and eminent men, in- 

 cluding some of the most noted characters of the age. 

 Among these was Sobieski, King of Poland. But it is as 

 the friend and protectress of La Fontaine and as the object 

 of Boileau's satire that she is best known. 



For a woman to devote herself to the study of science so 

 soon after the appearance of Moliere's Les Femmes Sa- 

 vantes argued more than ordinary courage. But for her to 

 become distinguished for her scientific acquirements was al- 

 most tantamount to defying public opinion. The great 

 majority of men had come to regard learned women in the 

 same light as those who were so mercilessly derided in the 

 Precieuses Ridicules; and they had, accordingly, no hesita- 

 tion in treating them as unbearable pedants. No one could 

 have made less parade of her learning than Mme. de la 

 Sabliere, or striven more successfully to conceal her admir- 

 able gifts. But this was not sufficient. She was known to 

 have devoted special study to science, particularly to as- 

 tronomy, and this was sufficient to make her the target of 

 the satirists of her time. 



By an act that wounded the self-love of Boileau this 

 Venus Urania, as she has been called, soon found herself 

 the victim of the satirist's well-directed shafts. The poet 

 does not name her, but refers to her as 



"Cette savante 

 Qu'estime Roberval et que Sauveur frequente " 



this learned woman whom Roberval esteems and whom 

 Sauveur frequents. And with the view of pricking the ob- 

 ject of his spleen in her most sensitive part, he tells, in his 

 Satire centre les Femmes, how she, with astrolabe in hand, 

 spends her nights in making observations of the planet 



