Philosophy not an improper Study for the Female Sex; many of them very
eminent for their great Progress in the Sciences; particularly
_Hypatia_, who excelled all the Philosophers of her Time.
That this Notion is a vulgar Prejudice, the vast Number of Ladies, who
have in every Age distinguish’d themselves by their Professions or
Performances in Learning, furnishes an unanswerable Argument. Whole
Volumes have been written, containing nothing else but the Lives of such
Women, as became eminent in all Kinds of Literature, especially in
Philosophy; which, as it is the highest Perfection, so it demands the
utmost Effort of human Nature. But leaving those Heroines to the Search
of the Curious, I shall confine myself at present to one Object worthy
all Admiration; in doing Justice to whom, I may be deemed to write the
Panegyric of the whole Sex. We have the unanimous Consent of _Synesius_,
_Socrates_, and _Philostorgius_, her Contemporaries; as likewise of
_Damascius_, _Nicephorus Gregoras_, _Nicephorus Callistus_, _Photius_,
_Suidas_, _Hesychius Illustris_, and others, touching the prodigious
Learning and other excellent Accomplishments of _Hypatia_. What is still
a greater Proof of the Fact, no one Person, or through Ignorance or
through Envy, has ever as much as insinuated the contrary. _Socrates_,
the Ecclesiastical Historian, an unsuspected Witness, says, That _she
arrived to such a Pitch of Learning, as very far to exceed all the
Philosophers of her time_; to which _Nicephorus_, also an Ecclesiastical
Historian, adds, _Those of other Times_. _Philostorgius_ affirms, That
_she was much superior to her Father and Master _Theon_, in what regards
Astronomy_. And _Suidas_, who mentions two Books of her Writing, one _on
the Astronomical Canon of_ Diophantus, and another _on the Conics of_
Apollonius, avers, That _she not only exceeded her Father in Astronomy:
But further, that she understood all the other Parts of Philosophy_; a
Thing that will be easily credited by those, who shall peruse the Sequel
of this Story, wherein nothing is advanced without competent Vouchers.