Note 259 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Lettres et Opuscules Inédits du Comte Joseph de Maistre, Tom. I, p. 194, Paris, 1851.
It was this same brusque and original writer who asserted that "science was a most dangerous thing for women; that no woman should study science under penalty of becoming ridiculous and unhappy; that a coquette can more readily get married than a savante." And he it was who declared that women who attempted to emulate men in the pursuit of science are monkeys and donne barbute—bearded women—and who designated Mme. de Staël as "la science en jupons, une impertinente femelette"—science in petticoats, a silly, impertinent female.
He, however, met an opponent worthy of his steel in the person of the eloquent bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup. In a lengthy and brilliant critique of De Maistre's views he shows them to be untenable, if not ridiculous. "I by no means," he writes, "agree with M. de Maistre that 'la science en jupons,' as he calls it, or talents of any kind whatsoever, militates in the slightest against a woman being a good wife or a good mother. Quite the contrary." And considering woman as the companion and aid of man—socia et adjutorium—he expresses a view which is quite the opposite of that championed by his distinguished adversary for, in words precise and pregnant, he asserts that the education of women cannot be too consistent, too serious, and too solid—"L'éducation des femmes ne saurait être trop suivie, trop sérieuse et trop forte." La Femme Studieuse, p. 160, Paris, 1895.