An Underappreciated Intellect
Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet (1706-1749), French mathematician and physicist. Image credit: Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In 1706, an official in the court of French King Louis XIV joined the ranks of the nobility by assuming the title that came with a plot of land he had acquired in central France. Louis Nicolas le Tonnelier de Breteuil and his wife, Gabrielle Anne de Froulay, were blessed later that year with a baby named Gabrielle Émilie, the only daughter among six children. Although much of France was in turmoil as the War of Spanish Succession dragged on, the de Breteuil family was able to maintain a comfortable life in Paris society. It was arranged for Émilie to wed the Marquis Florent-Claude du Chastellet-Lomont, giving her the title of Marquise du Chastellet, and she subsequently bore three children, two of whom survived to adulthood.
But Émilie du Châtelet, as she came to be known, did not live a stereotypical life of an 18th century French noblewoman. Families of her standing had access to education for their sons, but Émilie’s father took note of his daughter’s sharp mind. He hired tutors for her and allowed her to attend salons that he regularly hosted where she would have heard discussions about a wide range of subjects and ideas. Just as importantly, her exposure to formally educated minds and abstract concepts during her adolescent years undoubtedly cultivated her natural intellectual curiosity. After her children were born, du Châtelet and her husband agreed to pursue their own lives while maintaining a household together, and she sought several of France’s leading mathematicians to tutor her during her mid-twenties.
She subsequently moved to the Château de Cirey, a country home of the Châtelet family in northeastern France, where the writer/philosopher Voltaire joined her with the knowledge and permission of her husband. Together they engaged in various intellectual and personal pursuits with Voltaire acknowledging the contributions of du Châtelet to several of his writings. She helped him clarify his understanding of Newtonian physics and they jointly created a laboratory on the castle grounds to conduct their own experiments. In contrast to Voltaire and several other public intellectuals, du Châtelet did not fully subscribe to any particular person or hypothesis but developed an approach of critical inquiry. She was willing to acknowledge that there was much to be understood and believed that the pursuit of greater understanding was best served by the consideration of conflicting ideas whereas others seemed to take sides with famous scientists and philosophers to insist on the validity of their ideas. Du Châtelet continued to read voraciously and summon tutors to her château, building her knowledge base and ability to understand and assess the ideas set forth by her intellectual peers to determine which hypotheses could be proven and which other questions to ask.
Château de Cirey, Haute-Marne, France. Image credit: LaurPhil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Émilie du Châtelet went beyond consuming information to drafting essays with her own ideas about mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the human condition. Despite the gender prejudices of the times, in 1739 she became the first woman to have a scientific paper published by the French Académie des Sciences after receiving an honorable mention for her submission to a contest regarding the nature of fire. The next year, her book Institutions de Physique ("Lessons in Physics"), which she had written as an instructional text for her son by compiling key scientific and philosophical ideas from prominent European thinkers of the time, was read and discussed among salons. She expanded upon prevailing theories with her own reasonings and occasionally introduced views that refuted prevailing arguments. When learned men such as D’Ortus de Mairan, the Secretary of the Académie des sciences, decided to challenge her ideas in writing, du Châtelet published detailed rebuttals that caused him to back down.
Newton's own copy of his Principia in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. Image credit: Isaac Newton, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Du Châtelet undertook a daunting task by working on a French translation of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which established the foundation of modern science. Her project was more than a translation since she was capable of using her deep understanding of mathematics, physics, and other natural sciences to consider Newton’s writings as well as finding unclear or faulty hypotheses. She augmented the original text with her own commentary that elucidated and validated some of Newton’s arguments as well as providing concepts and corrections based on her own research. The translation was completed in 1749 and published ten years later. To date, hers remains the definitive French version, having spread Newton’s ideas widely among intellectuals and academics of the 18th century and serving as the basis for continued scientific inquiry. Unfortunately, she died from pregnancy complications shortly after finishing her Principia work.
A number of entries in the Encyclopédie, known as a work of ‘a society of men of letters’, were lifted verbatim from du Châtelet’s writings without attribution. Despite her many contributions to our understanding of mathematics, science, and reasoned research as well as her influence on Voltaire and renowned scientists such as Swiss mathematician and scientist Leonhard Euler, du Châtelet was an underappreciated intellect who was often reduced to simply being the mistress of Voltaire. She was well aware of the prejudices of her time and recognized that her fortunate situation of birth exposed her to an intellectual life. She lamented missed opportunities for women who could not even imagine that they could be capable of a pursuit of knowledge. In a letter to Frederick the Great of Prussia, she wrote:
"Judge me for my own merits, or lack of them, but do not look upon me as a mere appendage to this great general or that great scholar, this star that shines at the court of France or that famed author. I am in my own right a whole person, responsible to myself alone for all that I am, all that I say, all that I do. It may be that there are metaphysicians and philosophers whose learning is greater than mine, although I have not met them. Yet, they are but frail humans, too, and have their faults; so, when I add the sum total of my graces, I confess I am inferior to no one."
‑‑‑Mme du Châtelet; The Divine Mistress, (Edwards, 1970, p. 1)
Jeu de français
Just as Émilie du Châtelet proved, people can only determine their capabilities by trying something new and putting effort and resourcefulness into it. Her conviction that no one person could experience or know everything and therefore any and all reasoned contribution should be useful regardless of its source is applicable to everyone.
Learning another language can feel like an opportunity or a difficult challenge or sometimes both. Put the French you have learned into action by trying the English-to-French crossword below, and in the process, perhaps you will discover new vocabulary or a way to learn that is new to you.
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