CXIII. _Donna Bernarda Ferreyra_, a Portuguese lady, the daughter of Don Ignatio Ferreyra, a knight of the order of St. Jago, besides knowing and speaking with ease various languages, understood poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, and the mathematics. She left many poetical writings; and our famous Lopez de Vega, had such a veneration for the extraordinary merit of this lady, that he dedicated to her his elegy, intituled La Philis. CXIV. _Donna Juana Morella_, a native of Barcelona, was a woman of wonderful learning. Her father having killed a man, was obliged to fly, and carried her with him into Lyons in France, where this extraordinary child, betaking herself to study, made so rapid a progress, that at twelve years of age (which was in the year 1607) she defended conclusions in philosophy publicly, which she afterwards committed to writing, and dedicated to Margaret of Austria, queen of Spain. At the age of seventeen, according to the relation of Guidon Patin, who lived at that time, she entered upon public disputations in the jesuits college at Lyons. She understood philosophy, music, and jurisprudence, and it is said, that she spoke fourteen languages. She took the veil, in the Dominican convent of saint Præxedis at Avignon. CXV. The celebrated nun of Mexico, _Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz_, is so well known to every body by her learned and ingenious poetical works, that it is needless to say any thing in her eulogium. I shall only mention, that the least of her accomplishments was her talent for poetry, although that was the thing, for which she was most celebrated. Many Spanish poets have been superior to her in point of poetical genius, but perhaps no one has equalled her, with regard to her universal knowledge, in all kinds of faculties. Her poetry was natural, but she wanted energy. In the critical part of the sermon of father Viera, he gives her credit for her ingenuity; but to speak the truth, she was not equal in that respect, to that learned jesuit himself, of whom she was the opponent: nor is there any thing extraordinary, in a woman’s being found inferior to a man, who, for elevation of thought, reasoning with perspicuity, and explaining himself with clearness, has not yet been equalled by any preacher whatever. CXVI. The panegyric of the late _duchess of Aveiro_, is also needless, as her memory is still recent at court, and all over Spain. SECT. XVII. CXVII. The learned ladies of France, are very numerous, because there, they in general have more opportunities of studying, and more time allowed them for doing it, than they have in most other countries; I shall therefore, only recite such of them as were most famous.