Finally she was able to secure a copy of a work on algebra and a Euclid. Although without a teacher she immediately applied herself to master the contents of these two works, but she had to do so by stealth in bed after she had retired for the night. When her father learned of what was going on, he said to the girl's mother, "Peg, we must put a stop to this, or we shall have Mary in a straightjacket one of these days." The mother, who had no more sympathy with her daughter's scientific pursuits than had the father, and, fully convinced, like the great majority of her sex, that woman's duties should be confined to the affairs of the household, strove to divert her daughter's mind from her "unladylike" pursuits. But her efforts were ineffectual. The young woman, in spite of all obstacles and opposition, contrived to continue her cherished studies; and, through her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, afterward her father-in-law, she was able to become proficient in both Latin and Greek. When she was thirty-three years of age she became the happy possessor of a small library of mathematical works. "I had now," she writes, "the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity; concealment was no longer necessary, nor was it attempted. I was considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved of by many, especially by some members of my own family."[128] In March, 1827, Mrs. Somerville received a letter from Lord Brougham, who had heard of her remarkable acquirements, begging her to prepare for English readers a popular exposition of Laplace's great work--_Mecanique Celeste_. She was overwhelmed with astonishment at this request, for her modesty made her diffident of her powers; and she felt that her self-acquired knowledge of science was so far inferior to that of university men that it would be sheer presumption for her to undertake the task proposed to her. She was, however, finally persuaded to make the attempt, with the proviso that her manuscript should be consigned to the flames unless it fulfilled the expectations of those who urged its production.