Part 15

XCVIII. I am not ignorant, that the inhabitants of Bœotia were antiently looked upon, as a most rude, dull people, and that _Bœoticum Ingenium_ and _Bœtica Sus_, were proverbial terms of contempt, and used to express or denote, a heavy stupid person; and also, that this stupidity was attributed to the gross atmosphere, loaded with vapour, which prevails in that country; hence the expression of Horace in one of his epistles: _Bœoticum in crasso jurares aëre natum._ But I believe, and with some foundation, that the antients quoted did not do that country justice; imputing the ignorance which proceeded from want of application, to the want of capacity; and Bœotia’s lying on the confines of Attica, where learning flourished, seems to strengthen this opinion; for it is hardly probable, that within sight of a province, which is the theatre of wisdom, you should view another, which is a colony of ignorance and stupidity. On the other hand, it is certain, that Bœotia has produced some geniuses of the first rate; such as Pindar, the prince of Lyric Poets, and the great Plutarch, who, in the opinion of lord Bacon, was full equal to the first men of antiquity; and I suspect, that by looking back to the more early times of antiquity, we shall find a period, in which the Bœotians, in their culture of the arts and sciences, excelled, not only their neighbours, but all the other nations of Europe; because Cadmus, when he came from Phœnicia, was the first who introduced the letters of the alphabet into Greece, and was the first person in Europe, who invented the art of writing; and we learn from history, that he settled in Bœotia, where he founded the city of Thebes. To this may be added, that in Bœotia is found Mount Helicon, dedicated to the Muses, and from which they derive their name of Heliconides; and that from this mountain, descends the famous Aganippe fountain, consecrated to the same fictitious deities, the water of which, they feign to have been the wine of the poets, which enraptured and inspired them, and lighted up the fire of enthusiasm in their brains. It seems as if all these fictions could have no other origin, than poetry having in some former time flourished in that region.

XCIX. But admitting the Bœotians by nature to be rude and stupid, how can it be proved, that this is derived from the humidity of the country, and not from some other hidden cause; especially, when we see moist or damp countries, on which this stigma is not fixed? Let humidity then, be acquitted of the false accusation which has been raised against it, to wit, of being at war with, and an enemy to ingenuity; and let it be settled, that from this principle, no proof can be deduced to ascertain, that the women in point of understanding, are inferior to the men.

SECT. XV.

C. Father Malebranche, reasons in another way, and denies the women have equal understanding with the men, on account of their brains being more soft and tender than those of the other sex. I really don’t know whether what he supposes about this greater degree of softness be true or not, but I have read two treatises on anatomy, and did not find the least mention of it in either of them. Perhaps, from having taken it for granted, that the brains of women were more humid, he concluded they were more soft; but this is not always a certain consequence, for ice is humid and not soft, and melted metal is soft, but not humid; or perhaps, from having observed the women were of a more soft and docile disposition than men, he inferred, that in their material composition they were the same; for there have been people so superficial, as to form ideas upon these sort of analogies, which afterwards, for want of due reflection, have been adopted by persons of great perspicuity.

CI. But taking all this for granted, I would be glad to know, how a greater degree of softness in the brain, produces or occasions, an imperfection in the understanding? I should rather think, that on account of its being more pliable to the impression of the spirits, it would be an instrument or organ, better suited or adapted to mental operations. This argument, is strengthened by the doctrine of the author, because he says in another place, the vestiges or traces, which the impression of the animal spirits leaves on the brain, are the lines, with which the faculty of the imagination, forms on it the effigies of objects; and the larger or more distinct these vestiges or impressions are, the greater will be the force and clearness, with which the understanding must perceive the objects. _Cur igitur imaginatio consistat in sola virtute, qua mens sibi imagines objectorum efformare potest, eas imprimendo, ut ita loquar, fibris cerebri, certe quo vestigia, spirituum animalium, quæ sunt veluti imaginum illarum lineamenta erunt distinctiora, & grandiora, eo fortius, & distinctius mens objecta illa imaginabitur._ (Lib. 2. de Inquirenda Veritate, part 1, cap. 1.)

CII. Now then, it being admitted, the softer the brain is, with greater ease will the animal spirits make impressions on it, and that, for the same reason, the vestiges or traces will be larger and more distinct; they will make them with greater ease, and bigger, because the matter resists less; more distinct because the fibres being somewhat rigid, they would, by means of their elasticity, make efforts to restore themselves to their former shape and position; and thus, the path on traces made by the course of the animal spirits, would be very faint, if not quite effaced. The fibres of the brain of a woman, being then more flexible than those of the brain of a man, they are capable of having larger and more distinct images impressed on them, and they must consequently, according to this doctrine, perceive objects better than men.

CIII. But I would not be understood to admit, that the women have more understanding than the men; I only mean to retort on father Malebranche, the doctrine, from which he pretends to infer the advantage to be on the side of the men, in contradiction to what in another place, he himself has asserted. My own opinion of the matter is, that, by such sort of philosophical reasoning, you may prove every thing, when in reality you prove nothing. Every one philosophizes in his own mode, and if I was to write with a view of flattering, or from caprice or ostentation, or with a design of making parade of my ingenuity, I could easily, by deducing consequences from admitted principles, elevate the understandings of the women, superior to those of the men, by many degrees; but this is not my nature, or disposition; on the contrary, I had much rather propound my sentiments with sincerity; and therefore I say, that neither father Malebranche, nor any other person, even to this day, has known the punctual actings, or specific manœuvres, by which the organs of the head, administer to the faculties of the soul. We don’t know as yet, how fire burns, or how snow occasions cold, although they are things which are manifest to our sight and our touch; and would father Malebranche, and the other Cartesians, persuade us, that they have registered and examined all that passes in the most hidden and remote corners of the cabinet of the rational soul? Neither do these maxims appear to me well founded, which, by reducing every thing to mechanical principles, figure to us the spirit, stamping materially the images of objects on the brain, in the same manner, that impressions are made on copper with a chissel. I am also aware of the serious difficulties, that are attendant on, and annexed to, the intentional species of Aristotle. But what is the result of all this? Why, that none of us have done more, than just touch the outside covering of Nature. We all walk blindfold, and he is the most blind, who fancies he perceives things with the greatest clearness, and may be compared to a servant of Seneca, named Harpacta, who was so infatuated, after having lost all his visual faculties, and having become stone-blind, as to fancy he could see. It is certain, that those who live in a confidence, that they can penetrate and look into Nature, are the most exposed to dangerous errors; because he who walks on with much boldness, having but a dim light to guide him, runs the most hazard of falling; on the contrary, he is the furthest from this danger, who knowing the way is dark, proceeds with caution.

CIV. But granting to father Malebranche, and the rest of the Cartesians, that the representation of objects to the mind, is made by means of these material traces, which, in their course, the spirits impress on the brain; what follows from it is, that the brains of women being softer than those of men, the marks, on account of the pliability of the matter, will be larger and more distinct in the first, than in the last; and what can be inferred from this? Why, by the doctrine of father Malebranche, you may make whichever of the two following inferences you like best, either that the women comprehend better than the men, or that they do not comprehend so well. The first, may be inferred from the place we a little before cited; and the second, because where he explains himself with regard to what he has said against the women, he maintains, that the excessive lively imaginations, which result from these large images or impressions, are unfavourable to the right comprehension of objects. _Cum enim tenuiora objecta ingentes in delicatis cerebri fibris excitent motus, in mente protinus etiam excitant sensationes ita vividas, ut ijs tota occupetur._ Lib. 2. part ii. cap. 1.

CV. But this second is contrary to all reason, for it does not follow from this doctrine of large images, that small ones do not represent objects well, for in some cases they rather conduce to represent them best; atoms, for example, being better seen through a microscope than larger bodies; and liveliness of imagination, if it does not extend to madness, contributes much to a perspicuous understanding of things.

CVI. But, in reality, from this greater softness of the brain, it cannot be deduced, that the understandings of women are either larger or smaller, because you cannot infer from it, that the impressions made by the spirits on the organ, are bigger or less; which is the principle, from whence you must conclude both the one and the other; the reason is, because it seems most probable, that the impulse of the spirits is proportioned to the docility of the matter, and thus, that spirits feebly impelled, do not make a larger impression on a soft brain, than that which is made on a more firm and tense one, by spirits which move with greater force and impetuosity; in the same manner, that by regulating the force of your hand, you may make as superficial a mark with a tool on wax, as you may on lead. My opinion of the matter is, that from this system of the brains of women, all you can infer is, that the corporeal movements in them, are less vigorous than they are in men; on which account, the nerves which have their origin in the fibres of the brain, and the spinal marrow, have less power in women, or move with more feeble impulses in them than they do in men; but not that their mental operations are more or less perfect.

SECT. XVI.

CVII. I think it is now time to depart from the labyrinths of physics, and to enter on the open and pleasing plains of history, and to persuade by examples, that the understandings of the women, are not inferior to those of the men, even for the attainment of the most difficult sciences. This is the best method, which can be fallen upon to convince the vulgar, who are generally more influenced by examples, than arguments. To recite all that occur, would be tiresome, and therefore, I shall only mention some of those women, who, in these latter ages, have been the most eminently distinguished for their learning, and who have flourished in our own country Spain, and in the neighbouring kingdoms.

CVIII. Spain, which strangers hold cheap in this particular, has, to the honour of literature, produced many women, remarkably eminent for all sorts of learning. The principal ones are the following.

CIX. _Donna Anna de Cervaton_, lady of honour to the Germanic Queen de Fox, second wife of Don Ferdinand the Catholic; she was a most celebrated woman, but more so on account of her learning and rare talents, than for her uncommon beauty, which was so striking, that she was generally allowed to be the finest woman about the court. In Lucio Marino Siculo, may be seen the Latin letters which that author wrote her, and the lady’s answers in the same idiom.

CX. _Donna Isabel de Joya_, in the sixteenth century, was esteemed a woman of great learning. It is told of her, that she preached in the church of Barcelona, to the amazement of a great concourse of auditors. I suppose the prelates who permitted it, judged that the injunction of the Apostle, which in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, prohibits women to speak in the church, admitted of some exceptions, in the same manner the injunction did, which prohibits them to teach in the Epistle to Timothy; for it is a fact, that Priscilla, who was the companion of this same apostle, taught and instructed Apollo Pontonicusin the evangelic doctrine, as appears from the Acts of the Apostles; and that afterwards passing to Rome in the pontificate of Paul III. she, in the presence of the cardinals, much to their satisfaction, explained many of the difficult passages in the books of the subtile Scotus; but what redounded most of all to her honour, was her having converted in that capital of the world, a great number of Jews to the catholic faith.

CXI. _Luisa Sigea_, a native of Toledo, but of French extraction, besides being skilled in philosophy, and sound literature, was ornamented in a singular manner, with a knowledge of languages, for she understood Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac; and it is said, she wrote a letter to pope Paul III. in each of these languages. Her father, Diego Sigea, being afterwards called to the court of Lisbon, as preceptor to Theodosius of Portugal duke of Braganza; the infanta Donna Maria of Portugal, daughter of the king Don Manuel, and of his third wife, Donna Leonora of Austria, who was a great lover of letters, took much pleasure in the company of the learned Sigea; who afterwards married with Francisco de Cuevas, the Lord of Villanasur, and a cavalier of Burgos, from which marriage, as Don Luis Salazar informs us in his history of the house of Farnese, there descended a fine progeny, which are now living in Castile.

CXII. _Donna Oliva Sabuco de Nantes_, a native of Alcaraz, was a woman of sublime penetration, and of an elevated genius, eminent for her knowledge of physical, medicinal, moral, and political matters, as may be seen by her writings; but the thing which most illustrated and distinguished her, was her new phisiological system, where, in opposition to all the antients, she maintained, that it is not the blood which invigorates the body, but a white fluid issuing from the brain, which pervades the whole nervous system; and she attributes almost all disorders to this vital dew being vitiated. This system, which the incuriosity of Spain neglected, the curiosity of England embraced with eagerness, and now we receive from the hands of strangers as their invention, that, which in reality was originally our own. Fatal genius of Spaniards, who, in order that what is produced in their own country should seem pleasing to them, must have it first monopolized by strangers, and afterwards by those strangers sold to them again. It seems also, that this great woman was beforehand with Renard Descartes, in broaching the opinion, that the brain was the seat of the rational soul, though she did not, like Descartes, confine its habitation to the pineal gland only, but supposed it to occupy the whole substance. The confidence which Donna Oliva had in her own abilities to defend her singular opinions, was such; that in an epistle-dedicatory addressed to count Barajas, president of Castile, she intreats him to use his authority, to convene together the most learned natural philosophers, and doctors of medicine in Spain, and that she would undertake to convince them, that the physics, and medicinal doctrines, which were taught in the schools, went all on erroneous principles. She flourished in the reign of Philip II.

CXIII. _Donna Bernarda Ferreyra_, a Portuguese lady, the daughter of Don Ignatio Ferreyra, a knight of the order of St. Jago, besides knowing and speaking with ease various languages, understood poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, and the mathematics. She left many poetical writings; and our famous Lopez de Vega, had such a veneration for the extraordinary merit of this lady, that he dedicated to her his elegy, intituled La Philis.

CXIV. _Donna Juana Morella_, a native of Barcelona, was a woman of wonderful learning. Her father having killed a man, was obliged to fly, and carried her with him into Lyons in France, where this extraordinary child, betaking herself to study, made so rapid a progress, that at twelve years of age (which was in the year 1607) she defended conclusions in philosophy publicly, which she afterwards committed to writing, and dedicated to Margaret of Austria, queen of Spain. At the age of seventeen, according to the relation of Guidon Patin, who lived at that time, she entered upon public disputations in the jesuits college at Lyons. She understood philosophy, music, and jurisprudence, and it is said, that she spoke fourteen languages. She took the veil, in the Dominican convent of saint Præxedis at Avignon.

CXV. The celebrated nun of Mexico, _Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz_, is so well known to every body by her learned and ingenious poetical works, that it is needless to say any thing in her eulogium. I shall only mention, that the least of her accomplishments was her talent for poetry, although that was the thing, for which she was most celebrated. Many Spanish poets have been superior to her in point of poetical genius, but perhaps no one has equalled her, with regard to her universal knowledge, in all kinds of faculties. Her poetry was natural, but she wanted energy. In the critical part of the sermon of father Viera, he gives her credit for her ingenuity; but to speak the truth, she was not equal in that respect, to that learned jesuit himself, of whom she was the opponent: nor is there any thing extraordinary, in a woman’s being found inferior to a man, who, for elevation of thought, reasoning with perspicuity, and explaining himself with clearness, has not yet been equalled by any preacher whatever.

CXVI. The panegyric of the late _duchess of Aveiro_, is also needless, as her memory is still recent at court, and all over Spain.

SECT. XVII.

CXVII. The learned ladies of France, are very numerous, because there, they in general have more opportunities of studying, and more time allowed them for doing it, than they have in most other countries; I shall therefore, only recite such of them as were most famous.

CXVIII. _Susana de Hubert_, wife of Charles Jardin, an attendant of Henry III. understood philosophy and theology, and was well versed in the writings of the fathers. She had learned the Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; but her christian piety, which was exceedingly exemplary, contributed more to the advancement of her true glory, than her vast erudition.

CXIX. _Maria de Guernay_, a Parisian of illustrious family, to whom the learned Dominic Baudio gave the name of the Syren of France, arrived to such a pitch of glory and fame, for genius and literature, that there was scarce a learned man of her time, who did not esteem it a great honour to keep-up a literary correspondence with her; and hence it was, that there were found in her cabinet when she died, letters, from the cardinals Richelieu, Bentivolio, and Perron; from San Francisco de Sales, and other enlightened prelates; from Charles the First, duke of Mantua, from the Count de Ales, from Erycio Puteano, Justus Lipsius, Messrs. Balzac, Maynard, Heinsius, Cæsar Capacio, Carlos Pinto, and many other men, of the most shining parts and learning in that age.

CXX. _Madalena Scuderi_, who was called with great reason the Sappho of her age, as she equaled that most celebrated Greek lady, in the elegance of her compositions, and excelled her much, in the purity of her manners. She was eminent for her learning, but incomparable for her judgment and discretion, as her many and excellent works testify. Her Artamenes, or Cyrus the Great, and her Clelia, in which tracts, in imitation of Barclay’s Argenis, under the figure of novels, much true history is contained, are pieces of consummate value, and in my judgment, are preferable to any thing of the kind that has been written in France, or any other country, the Argenis only excepted. The nobleness of the thoughts, the harmonious combination of the narrative, the pathetic efficacy of the persuasion, the liveliness of the descriptions, and the native purity, majesty, and force of the style, make a composition, which all together, is admirable and enchanting; to this we may add, by way of enhancing the value of the performance, that the amorous passages, are described with all the delicacy and decency possible, the moral virtues, represented in the most engaging and attractive light, and the heroic ones, with the most brilliant splendor. As a proof of the prodigious talents of this woman, the honour of having her entered as a member of their societies, was industriously sought after, by all those academies, whose institutions, allowed of admitting among them persons of her sex. She in the year 1671, gained the prize of eloquence in the French academy, which amounted to the same thing, as that truly-noble body, having pronounced her the most eloquent person in all France. The most Christian king, Lewis XIV. whose attention, no elevated merit escaped, settled on her a pension of twelve hundred livres a year, and cardinal Mazarine had long before, by his will, bequeathed her a legacy of the same value, and she received another donation to about the same amount, from the learned chancellor of France, Louis de Boucherat; by the help of which, she was enabled to pass through a regular, glorious, and long life, which terminated in the year 1701.

CXXI. _Antonieta de la Guardia_, beautiful both in shape and features, with which bodily perfections, the sweetness of her disposition, and the charms of her soul corresponded; so that it seemed as if nature had taken pride, with respect to her, of uniting in one woman, all the graces of person, and attractions of mind. She was so eminent for poetry, that, at a time in which this art was much cultivated, and in high estimation in France, there was not any man whatever in that extensive kingdom, who excelled her in it. Her works were collected in two volumes, which I have not seen. She died in 1694, leaving a daughter, the heir of her genius and accomplishments, who won the prize for poetry in the French academy.