WOMEN IN PHYSICS 207 



Bologna. This, he reasoned, would be a splendid tribute 

 to the versatility of his genius and would, at the same time, 

 be a biting satire on the demigods of French literature who 

 had dared to exclude him from their society. 



That he might not meet the same refusal on the part of 

 the Academy of Bologna as he had experienced in Paris, 

 Voltaire determined not to rely entirely on the good will 

 of the male members of the Bolognese academy. He ac- 

 cordingly resolved to enlist the services of Laura Bassi, 

 who was one of the leading members of this distinguished 

 body, and trust to her influence in his behalf on the hearts 

 of her colleagues. 



The first letter, written in Italian, is so characteristic of 

 the writer that it will bear reproduction. 



"Most Illustrious Lady," he writes from Paris, the 23d 

 of November, 1744, "I have been wishing to journey to 

 Bologna in order to be able one day to tell my countrymen 

 I have seen Signora Bassi; but, being deprived of this 

 honor, let it at least be permitted me to place at your feet 

 this philosophic homage and to salute the honor of her age 

 and of women. There is not a Bassi in London, and I 

 should be more happy to be a member of the Academy of 

 Bologna than of that of the English, although it has pro- 

 duced a Newton. If your protection should obtain for me 

 this title, of which I am so ambitious, the gratitude of my 

 heart will be equal to my admiration for yourself. I beg 

 you to excuse the style of a foreigner who presumes to 

 write you in Italian, but who is as great an admirer of 

 yours as if he were born in Bologna." 



The second letter of Voltaire is in response to one re- 

 ceived from Laura Bassi announcing that he had been 

 elected to membership in the Bologna Academy. The first 

 sentence of it suffices to indicate its tenor. "Nothing," 

 he writes, "was ever more grateful to me than to receive 

 from your hand the first advice that I had the honor, by 

 means of your favor, of being united by this new link to 



