178 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



Among other women astronomers of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury who deserve mention are Mme. du Pierry, the 

 Duchesse Louise of Saxe-Gotha, and Mme. Hortense 

 Lepaute. 



According to Lalande, Mme. du Pierry was the first 

 woman professor of astronomy in Paris. He dedicated to 

 her his Astronomie des Dames, and incorporated in his own 

 works many of her memoirs on astronomical subjects. She 



knowledge. She thought she would gain a greater reputation by this 

 peculiarity and a more decided superiority over other women. 



"She did not limit herself to this ambition. She wished to be a 

 princess as well, and she became so, not by the grace of God nor by 

 that of the King, but by her own act. This absurdity went on like 

 the others. One became accustomed to regard her as a princess of 

 the theatre, and one almost forgot that she was a woman of rank. 



"Madame worked so hard to appear what she was not that no 

 one knew what she really was. Even her faults were perhaps not 

 natural. They may have had something to do with her pretensions, 

 her want of respect with regard to the state of princess, her dullness 

 in that of savante, and her stupidity in that of a jolie femme. 



"However much of a celebrity Mme. du Chatelet may be, she 

 would not be satisfied if she were not celebrated, and that is what 

 she desired in becoming the friend of M. de Voltaire. To him she 

 owes the eclat of her life, and it is to him that she will owe im- 

 mortality." See Lettres de la Marquise du Deffand a Horace Wai- 

 pole, Tom. I, pp. 200-201, Paris, 1824. 



As a contrast to this atrocious caricature, it is but due to the 

 memory of Mme. du Chatelet to give her portrait by Voltaire, to 

 whom she was ever the beautiful, the charming Urania, the 



"Vaste et puissante genie, 

 Minerve de la France, immortelle Emilie." 



It is contained in the following verses: 



"L 'esprit sublime et la delicatesse, 

 L'oubli charmante de sa propre beaute 

 L'amitie tendre et 1 'amour emporte 



Sont les attraits de ma belle maitresse." 



If the whole truth were known, it would, doubtless, be found some- 

 where between the above extreme and contradictory views, and the 

 cause of the caustic statements of Mesdames de Stael and du Deffand 

 would probably be found to be quite accurately expressed in the 



