WOMEN AS INSPIRERS 371 



a statesman, lie shared with Newton the honor of discover- 

 ing the calculus. Huxley pronounced him "a man of sci- 

 ence, in the modern sense, of the first rank/' while the 

 King of Prussia declared of him, "He represents in him- 

 self a whole academy. " Through the cooperation of 

 Sophia Charlotte he founded the Berlin Academy of Sci- 

 ences. For her he wrote one of the most notable of his 

 productions his famed Theodicy. 



It would be difficult to estimate the influence of this 

 learned queen on Leibnitz, but it was undoubtedly greater 

 than any other single influence whatever. Her death was 

 the greatest loss he ever suffered, and when she was no 

 more, the beautiful Berlin suburb, Charlottenburg named 

 after her where he had been so happy in reading and 

 philosophizing with his illustrious pupil, lost all attraction 

 for him. 



A more striking illustration of woman's helpfulness is 

 afforded in the case of Frangois Huber, the celebrated Swiss 

 naturalist. Although blind from his seventeenth year, he 

 was able to carry on researches requiring the keenest eye- 

 sight and the closest observation. This he was able to do 

 through the affectionate cooperation of his devoted wife, 

 Marie Aimee. 



"When her friends tried to dissuade her from marrying 

 Huber, to whom she had been engaged for some time, 

 saying he had become blind, her reply was worthy of her 

 generous and noble nature : ' ' He then needs me more than 

 ever. ' ' 



During the forty years of their married life her tender- 

 ness and devotion to her husband were as unfailing as they 

 were inspiring. He worked through the eyes and hands 

 of his wife as if they were his own. She was his reader, 

 his observer, his secretary, his enthusiastic collaborator in 

 all those investigations that have rendered him so famous. 

 The blind man devised the experiments to be made, and 

 the quick-witted wife executed them and recorded the 



