Queen Of Science. Somerville Mary. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Somerville Mary
Издательство: Ingram
Серия: Canongate Classics
Жанр произведения: Биографии и Мемуары
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781847674654
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      [After three years of married life, my mother returned to her father’s house in Burntisland, a widow, with two little boys. The youngest died in childhood. The eldest was Woronzow Greig°, barrister-at-law, late Clerk of the Peace for Surrey. He died suddenly in 1865, to the unspeakable sorrow of his family, and the regret of all who knew him.]

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      [1D, 56: According to the plan I have laid down I pass over all family and domestic occurrences. I shall merely state, that after three years of married life, I returned to my father’s house a widow with two sons, one at the breast. I was much out of health, my complexion very pure and pale and I wore a widow’s cap; an old gentleman whom I had long known said my face was like the back of a silver spoon.]

      I was thirty-three years of age when I bought this excellent little library. I could hardly believe that I possessed such a treasure when I looked back on the day that I first saw the mysterious word ‘Algebra,’ and the long course of years in which I had persevered almost without hope. It taught me never to despair. I had now the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity; concealment 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, as will be seen hereafter. 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. A great part of the day I was occupied with my children; in the evening I worked, played piquet with my father, or played on the piano, sometimes with violin accompaniment.

      [1D, 59–61: In Spring we went to Burntisland which I found sadly changed. Enormous shoals of herrings had come up the Firth, the very sea was rippled by them. They were pursued by flocks of marine birds and whales were seen spouting in various directions, the scene was animated and interesting but the primitive simplicity of the little town was gone. Multitudes of strangers had come to profit by the fishery and speculators built ugly brick houses on the Links for salting and smoking the fish. The fields in the vicinity were manured with the offal and the fish themselves; the air was tainted, the place became uninhabitable and our house and gardens were sold. The following summer we hired a small solitary house on an undulating pasture land between Burntisland and Kinghorn. On entering it I observed that the wall was rent from top to bottom, and was not at all pleased to hear that it was the effect of lightning, being aware that a place once struck was often liable to be struck again. However, I was in greater danger a few days after from a very different cause. My father generally went out with his gun or fishing rod to a lake at a little distance, and as my mother seldom went further than the garden, I resumed my wandering habit and often went in search of plants or merely for a walk on the undulating pasture land. I was not afraid of cattle till one day while heedlessly passing a herd of them I heard a loud bellowing and on looking round I saw a bull pawing the ground and coming towards me. I turned back and went to the top of an undulation and then ran down the other side hoping that when out of sight the bull would return to the herd, but I was no sooner at the bottom than I saw him on the top in full chase. I ran up the next undulation as the animal ran down the preceding, and he continued to pursue me for more than a quarter of a mile till I arrived half dead with fear and fatigue at our own door.]

      Professor Playfair was a man of the most varied accomplishments and of the highest scientific distinction. He was an elderly man when I first became acquainted with him, by no means good-looking, but with a benevolent expression, somewhat concealed by the large spectacles he always wore. His manner was gravely cheerful; he was perfectly amiable, and was both respected and loved, but he could be a severe though just critic. He liked female society, and, philosopher as he was, marked attention from the sex obviously flattered him. [2D, 57 in margin: Mrs Apreece, afterwards Lady Davy°, did her best to captivate him and while out walking, she made him tie her shoe string which amused the Edinburgh gossips.]

      I had now read a good deal on the higher branches of mathematics and physical astronomy, but as I never had been taught, I was afraid that I might imagine that I understood the subjects when I really did not; so by Professor Wallace’s advice I engaged his