For a woman to devote herself to the study of science so soon after the appearance of Moliere's _Les Femmes Savantes_ argued more than ordinary courage. But for her to become distinguished for her scientific acquirements was almost tantamount to defying public opinion. The great majority of men had come to regard learned women in the same light as those who were so mercilessly derided in the _Precieuses Ridicules_; and they had, accordingly, no hesitation in treating them as unbearable pedants. No one could have made less parade of her learning than Mme. de la Sabliere, or striven more successfully to conceal her admirable gifts. But this was not sufficient. She was known to have devoted special study to science, particularly to astronomy, and this was sufficient to make her the target of the satirists of her time. By an act that wounded the self-love of Boileau this Venus Urania, as she has been called, soon found herself the victim of the satirist's well-directed shafts. The poet does not name her, but refers to her as "Cette savante Qu'estime Roberval et que Sauveur frequente----" this learned woman whom Roberval esteems and whom Sauveur frequents. And with the view of pricking the object of his spleen in her most sensitive part, he tells, in his _Satire contre les Femmes_, how she, with astrolabe in hand, spends her nights in making observations of the planet Jupiter and how this occupation has had the effect of weakening her sight and ruining her complexion.[138] Mme. de la Sabliere does not, however, seem to have been greatly perturbed by the ungracious effusions of the satirist, for she continued her cultivation of astronomy as before the poet's ill-natured outburst. She probably found ample compensation in the writings of La Fontaine, who addressed her as his muse and proclaimed her as one in whom were combined manly beauty and feminine grace--_beaute d'homme avec grace de femme_. Maria Kirch, born at Panitch, near Leipsic, in 1670, was the wife of a Berlin astronomer, Gottfried Kirch. After her marriage she, like her three sisters-in-law, became her husband's pupil in astronomy. In 1702, as his assistant in observations and calculations, she was fortunate enough to discover a comet. She was the friend of Leibnitz, and was by him presented to the court of Prussia. It is a matter of regret to those of her own sex that this comet was not, as it should have been, named after its discoverer.