Fraulein Dorothea Schlozer, a Hanoverian lady, was thought worthy of the
highest academical honours of Göttingen University, and, at the jubilee
of 1787, she had the degree of Doctor of Philosophy conferred upon her,
when only seventeen years of age. The daughter of the Professor of
Philosophy in that University, she from her earliest years discovered an
uncommon genius for learning. Before she was three years of age, she was
taught Low German, a language almost foreign to her own. Before she was
six, she had learned French and German, and then she began geometry; and
after receiving ten lessons, she was able to answer very difficult
questions. The English, Italian, Swedish, and Dutch languages were next
acquired, with singular rapidity; and before she was fourteen, she knew
Latin and Greek, and had become a good classical scholar. Besides her
knowledge of languages, she made herself acquainted with almost every
branch of polite literature, as well as many of the sciences,
particularly mathematics. She also attained great proficiency in
mineralogy; and, during a sojourn of six weeks in the Hartz Forest, she
visited the deepest mines, in the common habit of a labourer, and
examined the whole process of the work. Her surprising talents becoming
the general topic of conversation, she was proposed, by the great
Orientalist Michaelis, as a proper subject for academical honours. The
Philosophical Faculty, of which the Professor was Dean, was deemed the
fittest; and a day was fixed for her examination, in presence of all
the Professors. She was introduced by Michaelis himself, and
distinguished, as a lady, with the highest seat. Several questions were
first proposed to her in mathematics; all of which she answered to
satisfaction. After this, she gave a free translation of the
thirty-seventh Ode of the first Book of Horace, and explained it. She
was then examined in various branches of art and science, when she
displayed a thorough knowledge of the subjects. The examination lasted
two hours and a half; and at the end, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
was unanimously conferred upon her, and she was crowned with a wreath of
laurel by Fraulein Michaelis, at the request of the Professors.