The Romance of Mathematics: Being the Original Researches of a Lady Professor of Girtham College in Polemical Science, with some Account of the Social Properties of a Conic; Equations to Brain Waves; Social Forces; and the Laws of Political Motion.Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Science
The Romance of Mathematics: Being the Original Researches of a Lady Professor of Girtham College in Polemical Science, with some Account of the Social Properties of a Conic; Equations to Brain Waves; Social Forces; and the Laws of Political Motion.
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Satire, English; Women -- Education -- Great Britain
action of centrifugal force, and nature suggests this plan for our
adoption. Increase the attraction of the Throne; rigidly connect each
individual by the strong chords of affection, advantage and utility with
the ruling power; and then, though the radical axis may be there, it
will cease to indicate any motion along it, it will not prevail over the
counteracting influence of loyalty, and the stability of the social
system and the happiness of the individuals will be the results.
'I would serve my King,
Serve him with all my fortune here at home,
And serve him with my person in the wars;
Watch for him, fight for him, bleed for him, die for him,
As every true-born subject ought.'
This, most noble professors, is the language of true patriotic loyalty.
Let the monarch be loved and loving, let the laws be just and equal,
happy will be the people, prosperous the realm. There are those who
counsel different things, and preach sedition and the breaking-up of
laws; but those who advocate such doctrines lack that judicial
mathematical training which we, students and professors of Girtham
College, have acquired. If polemical mathematics, the science of the
future, should become more widely studied; if its results were
disseminated far and wide; above all, if the proper position which women
ought to occupy in the counsels of the nation were assigned to them, we
should hear less of these wild schemes and foolish theories, and the
influence of women would tend greatly to promote the stability and
security of the State.
Why, let me ask, should woman be excluded from that position which is so
justly hers? from those duties which she can discharge so faithfully? It
has been said that if we wish to know the political and moral condition
of a State, we must ask what rank women hold in it. We are told that
women have more strength in their looks than men have in their laws.
Why, then, do men debar her from those fields of occupation wherein she
may labour for the nation's good, and use her influence, which they
acknowledge to be great, in those callings wherein she may most easily
benefit the State, and the country she so ardently loves?
At some future time I hope to speak more fully on this subject; and in
concluding this lecture, I will remark that English politics need a
leavening influence which will counteract the evil tendencies and
corrupt theories which, in spite of our advantageous social system, at
present exist; and this leavening influence will be best produced by
the admission of those into the counsels of the nation who are
acknowledged to have a benign and healthy influence--the women of
England. Let women have their proper share in the government of the
country, and I have no fear lest we shall preserve our elliptical
constitution, and all the advantages which we at present enjoy.
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