The wife of Nathaniel Bowditch was a woman of singular sweetness of
disposition and cheerful piety, who, by her entire sympathy with her
husband in all his studies and pursuits, lightened and cheered his
labours; and by relieving him from all domestic cares, enabled him to go
on with undivided mind and undistracted attention, in the execution of
his great work--the translation of Laplace's _Mécanique Celeste_, on
which his fame as a man of science rests. He had been heard to say that
he never should have accomplished the task, and published the book in
its present extended form, had he not been stimulated and encouraged by
her. When the serious question was under consideration as to the
expediency of Bowditch's publishing it at his own expense, at the
estimated cost of 10,000 dollars, (which it actually exceeded,) with the
noble spirit of her sex, his wife conjured and urged him to go on and do
it, saying that she would find the means, and gladly make any sacrifice,
and submit to any self-denial that might be involved in it. In grateful
acknowledgment of her sympathy and aid, he proposed, in the concluding
volume, to dedicate the work to her memory, (she died in 1834)--a design
than which nothing could be more beautiful or touching.[3]
In the course of his labour, Dr. Bowditch used to say, "I never come
across one of Laplace's _Thus it plainly appears_, without feeling sure
that I have got hours of hard study before me to fill up the chasm, and
find out and show _how_ it plainly appears."
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Footnote 3:
It is highly honourable to the sex, that the only exposition of
Laplace's work that has (1848) appeared in England, is from the pen of
a female--the accomplished Mary Somerville, wife of Dr. Somerville, of
Chelsea Hospital. This was published under the title of the _Mechanism
of the Heavens_, of which, it is observed, in the _Edinburgh Review_,
"this, unquestionably, is one of the most remarkable works that female
intellect ever produced in any age or country; and with respect to the
present day, we hazard little in saying that Mrs. Somerville is the
only individual of her sex in the world who could have written it."
For this signal service to science, there was conferred upon the lady
a pension of 300_l._ per annum, at the recommendation of Sir Robert
Peel.
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