370 .WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



cipia Philosophic^. She, lie declared, understood him better 

 than any one else he had ever met, for "in her alone were 

 united those generally separated talents for metaphysics 

 and for mathematics which are so characteristically oper- 

 ative in the Cartesian system/' 1 



To this earnest student who was always absorbed in the 

 mysteries of metaphysics and the problems of geometry, 

 Descartes could refuse nothing. When distance separated 

 them he continued his instructions by correspondence. One 

 of the results of this correspondence was his treatise on 

 Passions de I'Ame, in which he develops certain ethical 

 views suggested by the Vita Beat a of Seneca. 



Another distinguished pupil of Descartes who exercised 

 a marked influence over him was the celebrated daughter 

 of Gustavus Adolphus, Queen Christine of Sweden. A mis- 

 tress of many languages and an ardent votary of science, 

 she was a munificent patron of scientific men, a great num- 

 ber of whom she had attracted to her court. The most dis- 

 tinguished of these was Descartes, to whom she was deeply 

 attached, and with whom she had planned great things for 

 science in Sweden, when his career was cut short by a pre- 

 mature death. 



Not the least influence on the intellectual life of Leibnitz 

 was Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Prussia and mother of 

 Frederick the Great. She was the niece of Descartes' illus- 

 trious friend, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and, as the pupil of 

 Leibnitz, quite as gloriously associated as had been her 

 aunt with the father of Cartesianism. 



Leibnitz was as distinguished by genius as his royal pupil 

 was by birth. Besides being eminent as a philosopher and 



i In the dedication of his Principles of Philosophy he addresses 

 his young friend and pupil in the following words: "Je puis dire 

 avec verite que je ne jamais rencontre que le seul esprit de votre 

 altesse auquel 1 'un et 1 'autre ' ' metaphysics and mathematics ' ' f (it 

 Sgalement facile; ce qui fait que j 'ai une tres juste raison der 

 1 'estimer incomparable. ' ' 



