Part 12

Footnote 41:

Godfrey Kirch was born in the year 1640, at Guben in Lower Lusatia, and lived with Hevelius. He published his Ephemerides in 1681, and became established at Berlin in 1700. This astronomer made numerous observations.

Footnote 42:

—-—-—“Amid the radiant orbs That mere than deck, that animate the sky, The life-infusing suns of other worlds, Lo! from the dread immensity of space Returning with accelerated course, The rushing Comet to the sun descends; And, as he sinks below the shading earth, With awful train projected o’er the heavens, The guilty nations tremble. But, above Those superstitious horrors that enslave The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith And blind amazement prone, th’ enlighten’d few, Whose godlike minds Philosophy exalts, The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy Divinely great; they in their powers exult; That wond’rous force of thought, which mounting spurns This dusky spot, and measures all the sky; While, from his far excursions through the wilds Of barren ether, faithful to his time, They see the blazing wonder rise anew, In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent To work the will of all-sustaining love: From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake Renewing moisture on the numerous orbs, Through which his long elipsis winds; perhaps To lend new fuel to declining suns, To light up worlds, and feed th’ eternal fire.”

Thomson’s Summer, l. 1702 and seq.

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Elizabeth d’Oginsky Puzynina, Countess Puzynina and Castellane of Mscislau, in Poland, erected and richly endowed a magnificent Observatory at Wilna, in the year 1753; and in 1767, she added to this establishment a fund equivalent to twelve thousand (American) dollars, for the purpose of maintaining an observer and purchasing instruments. The king of Poland afterwards gave to this institution the title of a “Royal Observatory.”

The wife of the celebrated Hevelius was, likewise, an astronomer. Madame Hevelius made Observations along with her husband; and she is represented, in the Machina Cœlestis, as having been engaged in measuring distances.

In the century just passed, the Marchioness du Chatelet translated Newton: Besides whom,—

Madame Lepaute and Madame du Piery were both known in the Astronomical World.

In our own time, Miss Caroline Herschel, sister of the great practical astronomer of the same name, in England, has not only distinguished herself, by having discovered the Comet of 1786; another, on the 17th of April, 1790; and a third, on the 8th of October, 1793; but likewise by attending to Astronomical Observations, along with her brother, for several years.

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Footnote 43:

Mr. Messier observed this Comet in France, eleven days before it was discovered in England by Miss Herschel.

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To these may be added the name of an illustrious female; Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Frederick V. Count Palatine of the Rhine and King of Bohemia, by the only daughter of James I. This Princess (who was an aunt of King George I.) cultivated a fine genius for the several branches of natural philosophy, and was well versed in mathematical science. Although this excellent woman was a Protestant, she was Abbess of Herworden in Westphalia, where she died in 1680, at the age of sixty-two years.

Mr. Lalande, in the prefatory department of his great work on Astronomy, after noticing the Abbé Pluche’s book, entitled Spectacle de la Nature, says: “The freshness of the shade, the stillness of night, the soft beams of twilight, the luminaries that bespangle the heavens, the various appearances of the moon, all form in the hands of Pluche a fit subject for fine descriptive colouring: it takes in view all the wants of man, regards the attention of the Supreme Being to those wants, and recognizes the glory of the Creator. His book is a treatise on final causes, as well as a philosophical work; and there are a great many young persons to whom the reading of it would afford satisfaction and pleasure.” Observing that he himself had no object in view, in his own work, but merely to treat of Astronomy, Lalande recommends to his readers, Nature Displayed, Derham’s Astro-Theology, and the Dialogues of Fontenelle on The Plurality of Worlds. Such works as these, with some elementary books on astronomy and those branches of science most intimately connected with that science, would be very proper for the study of that respectable class of females, whose minds are too elevated and correct to derive any gratification from the trifling productions of most of the modern novellists and romance-writers; but who, at the same time, might not be desirous of engaging in the more abstruse and laborious researches, which demand the attention of profound practical astronomers. The grand, the delightful views of nature, which studies of this sort would present to the vivid imagination, the delicate sensibility, and the good dispositions of a woman of genius and refinement, would not only improve her understanding and sanction the best feelings of her heart, but they would furnish her mind with an inexhaustible fund of animating reflections and rational enjoyments: in every respect, indeed, they would contribute to her happiness.

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Footnote 44:

That the mind of the female sex is capable of compassing great and extraordinary attainments, even in the most arduous branches of science, is attested by many instances; and it cannot be doubted that these would be more numerous, were women oftener attentive to philosophical pursuits. Those who have been just named serve to shew, that astronomy has been cultivated with success, by them. And Dr. Reid tells us (in his Essays on the intellectual and active Powers of Man,) that both the celebrated Christiana, Queen of Sweden, and the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick, King of Bohemia, and aunt of George I., were adepts in the philosophy of Descartes. The latter of these princesses, though very young when Descartes wrote his Principia, was declared by that philosopher to be the only person he knew, who perfectly understood not only all his philosophical writings, but the most abstruse of his mathematical works.

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Let not, then, the beauties of astronomical science, and the captivating studies of natural philosophy in general, be exclusively enjoyed by men; but let the amiable, the intelligent, and the improved part of the female sex, be invited to a participation, with them, in these intellectual pleasures.

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Footnote 45:

The writer is happy in having it in his power to cite, in support of his own opinion, that of an amiable and conspicuous female, in favour of ladies making themselves acquainted with, at least, the rudiments of astronomical science.

The Countess of Carlisle, a woman whose literary attainments, as well as virtues and accomplishments, do honour to her sex and station, in her Letters, under the signature of Cornelia, thus recommends an attention to the study of astronomy, to the young ladies to whom her letters are addressed. “Attain a competent knowledge of the globe on which you live, that your apprehension of Infinite Wisdom may be enlarged; which it will be in a much higher degree, if you take care to acquire a general idea of the structure of the universe. It is not expected you should become adepts in astronomy; but a knowledge of its leading principles you may, and ought to obtain.”—Her ladyship then refers her young female correspondents to the Plurality of Worlds of Fontenelle, in order that they might acquire a knowledge of the planetary orbs; pleasantly recommending this author as a proper person, in the capacity of “a gentleman usher,” to “introduce” them to an “acquaintance” with “that brilliant assembly.”

Lady Carlisle’s Letters, lett. 8th.

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