Mary Somerville

“Her ardent thirst for knowledge, her assiduous application to study, and her eminent proficiency in science and the fine arts, have procured her a celebrity rarely obtained by any of her sex.”^[pr1100]Rev. Dr. Somerville (Mary Somerville’s father-in-law)

“Devoted and loving in all the relations of life, my mother was ever forgetful of self. Indulgent and sympathising, she never judged others with harshness or severity; yet she could be very angry when her indignation was aroused by hearing of injustice of oppression, of cruelty to man or beast, or of any attack on those she loved.”^[pr300]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“…my Mother was strongly averse to gossip, and to revelations of private life or of intimate correspondence…”^[pr100]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“My mother never introduced scientific or learned subjects into general conversation. When they were brought forward by others, she talked simply and naturally about them, without the slightest pretension to superior knowledge.”^[pr200]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“My mother always looked considerably younger than her age; even at ninety, she looked younger than some who were her juniors by several years. This was owing, no doubt, principally to her being small and delicate in face and figure, but also, I think, to the extreme youthfulness and freshness of both her heart and mind, neither of which ever grew old.”^[pr700]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“…although busily engaged in studying painting at Nasmyth’s academy, practising the piano five hours a day, and pursuing her more serious studies zealously, my mother went a good deal into society, for Edinburgh was a gay, sociable place, and many people who recollect her at that time, and some who were her dancing partners, have told me she was much admired, and a great favourite.”^[pr800]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“Mrs. Somerville is little, slightly made, fairish hair, pink colour, small, grey, round, intelligent, smiling eyes, very pleasing countenance remarkably soft voice, strong, but well-bred Scotch accent; timid, not disqualifying timid, but naturally modest, yet with a degree of self-possession through it which prevents her being in the least awkward, and gives her all the advantage of her understanding, at the same time that it adds a pre-possessing charm to her manner and takes off al dread of her superior scientific learning.”^[pr3200]Maria Edgeworth

“…I feel myself greatly honoured by receiving such a mark of regard from one who has done more to remove the light estimation in which the capacity of women is too often held, than all that has been accomplished by the whole sisterhood of poetical damsels and novel writing authors.”^[pr2100]Miss Joanna Baillie

“I could have desired no better proof that it was adapted to its purpose than such an encouraging opinion from you. I thank you heartily for taking the trouble to express, in such kind terms, your approbation of the book,&emdash;the approbation of one who has render such inestimable service to the cause of women by affording in her own person so high an example of their intellectual capabilities, and, finally, by giving to the protest in the great Petition of last year the weight and importance derived from the signature which headed it.”^[pr5000]John Stuart Mill
in a letter to Mary Somerville dated July 12th, 1869

“My mother, in alluding to the great changes in public opinion which she had lived to see, used to remark that a commonly well-informed woman of the present day would have been looked upon as a prodigy of learning in her youth, and that even till quite lately many considered that if women were to receive the solid education men enjoy, they would forfeit much of their feminine grace and become unfit to perform their domestic duties. My mother herself was one of the brightest examples of the fallacy of this old-world theory, for no one was more thoroughly and gracefully feminine than she was, both in manner and appearance; and, as I have already mentioned, no amount of scientific labour ever induced her to neglect her home duties.”^[pr5300]John Stuart Mill
in a letter to Mary Somerville dated July 12th, 1869

“My mother was profoundly and sincerely religious; hers was not a religion of mere forms and doctrines, but a solemn deep-rooted faith which influenced every thought, and regulated every action of her life.”^[pr5300]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“…I sure you I speak without any flattery when I say that of the two subjects which I find most difficult to see the chance of executing, there is one, which–unless Miss Sommerville will undertake–none else can…”^[pr5300]Lord Brougham
in a letter to Dr. Somerville (Mary Somverville’s husband) dated March 27, 1827

“She always retained her habit of study, and the pursuit, in which she had attained such excellence and which was always the most congenial to her,—Mathematics–delighted and amused her to the end.”^[pr5800]Martha Somerville (Mary Somerville’s daughter)

“Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of two ladies, distinguished in different walks of astronomy, be placed on the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in an astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice: and your Council is of opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of respect. Your Council has hitherto felt, that whatever might be its own sentiment on the subject, or however able and willing it might be to defent such a measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a position the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your Council has no fear that such a difference could now take place between any men whose opinion would avail to guide that of society at large; and, abandoning compliment on the one hand and false delicacy on the other, submits, that while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man, the sex of the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acknowledgement which might be held due to the latter. And your Council therefor recommends this meeting to add to the list of honorary members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel and Mrs. Somerville, of whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the ends to which it has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs.”^[ads500] Francis Baily President of the Royal Astronomical Society
In the Report of the Council of the Society to the Fifteenth Annual General Meeting, heald this day on February 14, 1835

“I consider it to be a work which will contribute greatly to the extension of the knowledge of physical astronomy, in this country, and of the great analytical processes which have been employed in such investigations. It is with this view that I consider it to be a work of the greatest value and importance. Dr. Whewell and myself have already taken steps to introduce it into the course of our studies at Cambridge, and I have little doubt that it will immediately become an essential work to those of our students who aspire to the highest places in our examinatinos.”^[pr2400]George Peacock Lowndean Professor of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge
in a letter dated February 14th, 1832 regarding Mary Somerville’s “Mechanism of the Heavens”

“…His Majesty has been pleased to take of Mrs. Sommerville’s elaborate works. Although the royal notice is not quite so swift as the lightning in the selection of its objects, it agrees with it in this, that is attracted by the loftiest; and though what she has performed may seem so natural and easy to herself, that she me blush to find it fame; all the rest of the world will agree with me in rejoicing that merit of that kind is felt and recognized at length in the high places of the earth.”^[pr2400]Sir John Herschel
in a letter dated July 17th, 1830

“No one has attempted to copy my ‘Connexion of the Physical Sciences’, the subjects are too difficult; but soon after the publication of the ‘Physical Geography’ a number of cheap books appeared just keeping witin the letter of the law on which account it has only gone through five editions. However a sixth is now required.”^[pr4500]Mary Somerville

” I shall have peculiar satisfaction in possessing it as a gift of the author, a book which I look upon as one of the most remarkable which our age has produced, which would be highly valuable from anyone, and which derives a peculiar interest from its writer.”^[pr2300]Dr. Whewell in a letter from dated November 2, 1831

“There is a perpetual war between civilization and the beauty of nature.”^[pr4400]

“I was annoyed that my turn for reading was so much disapproved of, and thought it unjust that women should have been given a desire for knowledge if it were wrong to acquire it.”^[pr400]

“I was not a favourite with my family at that period of my life, because I was reserved and unexpansive, in consequence of the silence I was obliged to observe on the subjects which interested me.”^[pr500]

“…I was intensely ambitious to excel in something, for I felt in my own breast that women were capable of taking a higher place in creation than that assigned to them in my early days, which was very low.”^[pr600]

“…I continued my mathematical and other pursuits, but under great disadvantages; for although my husband did not prevent me from studying, I met with no sympathy whatever from him, as he had a very low opinion of the capacity of my sex, and had neither knowledge nor interest in science of any kind.”^[pr900]

“I had now the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity; consealment was no longer possible, nor was it attempted. I was considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved of by many, especially by some members of my own family…They expected me to entertain and keep a gay house for them, and in that they were disappointed. As I was quite independent, I did not care for their criticism.”^[pr1000]

“Many of our friends had very decided and various religious opinions, but my husband and I never entered into controversy; we had too high a regard for liberty of conscience to interfere with any one’s opinions, so we have lived on terms of sincere freindship and love with people who differed essentially from us in religious views, and in all the books which I have written I have confined myself strictly and entirely to scientific subjects, although my religious opinions are very decided.”^[pr1700]

“Timidity of character, probably owing to early education, had a great influence on my daily life; for I did not assume my place in society in my younger days; and in argument I was instantly silenced, although I often knew, and could have proved, that I was in the right. The only thing in which I was determined and inflexible was in the prosecution of my studies.”^[pr1800]

“No analysis is so difficult as that of one’s own mind, but I do not think I err much in saying that perseverance is a characteristic of mine.”^[pr1800]

“I rose early and made such arrangements with regard to my children and family affairs that I had time to write afterwards; not however, without many interruptions. A man can always command his time under the plea of business, a woman is not allowed any such excuse.”^[pr2200]

“Age has not abated my zeal for the emancipation of my sex from the unreasonable prejudice too prevalent in Great Britain against a literary and scientific education for women. The French are more civilized in this respect, for they have taken the lead, and have given the first example in modern times of encouragement to the high intellectual culture of the sex.”^[pr5100]

“…I firmly believe that the living principle is never extinguished. Since the atoms of matter are indestructible, as far as we know, it is difficult to believe that the spark which gives to their union life, memory, affection, intelligence, and fidelity, is evanescent. Every atom in the human frame, as well as in that of animals, undergoes a periodical change by continual waste and renovation; the abode is changed, not its inhabitant.”^[pr5400]

“The infinite varieties of motion, in the heavens and on earth, obey a few laws so universal in their application that they regulate the curve traced by a [leaf], which seems to be the sport of winds, with as much certainty as the orbits of the planets.”^[sl400]