The Mind of Émilie du Châtelet (Part 2)

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0:34I'm Joey Dordano, and on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Psych! I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be?, I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS.

1:14Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to fupas to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me, or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. Hi, this is Dana Schwartz. And just one quick personal note before we begin.

1:53If you are listening to this episode on its release day, next Tuesday, May 19th, is the release of my newest book, The Arcane Arts. It's called The Arcane Arts. It's by pseudonym, gnome de plume, S.D. Coverley, because I co-wrote this book with my friend Dan Fry. We alternated perspectives. I wrote the female point of view. He wrote the male point of view. We went back and forth. It's a very fun novel. It is about an elite graduate school, a murder mystery, a secret society, sexy forbidden magic. It is slightly sexier, so if you are a younger reader, this is not the book for you. But adult readers, I really think you will enjoy The Arcane Arts.

2:38I definitely enjoyed writing it. And after today's episode, there will be a preview of the audiobook of The Arcane Arts. So you can just listen, see if you think it's something you'll like. Thank you so much for your support and letting me be a writer for a living, which means the world to me. Let's jump into today's episode.

3:05One evening, sweating in the early summer heat of the French countryside, Émilie Duchatlet was observing the fire in the estate's massive iron furnace. By her side was Voltaire, her lover, collaborator, and full-time houseguest. This was not a romantic outing for the couple while they gazed into the fire. Instead, they were attempting to recreate the experiments of the Dutch scientist Pieter van Muchenbroek to discern the nature of fire. Although perhaps that was their idea of a date night. The two had instructed the Iron Master to melt various metals. They took notes as hundreds of pounds of lead and iron transformed before their eyes.

4:01For Voltaire, their experiment clearly proved Newton's theory that fire was matter and therefore subject to gravity. Emily, however, was shocked that they could look at the same results and reach such different conclusions. She noted the experiment produced disparate outcomes. While melted iron maintained its essential nature and weight when cooled, lead became a powder and gained weight. We now understand this process as calcination. The lead was converted to an oxide at the temperature of the furnace. But such a concept had not yet entered the 18th century lexicon. The shifts in weight, Emily argued, were not due to fire possessing its own weight and being added to the metals, but rather due to the inherent qualities of the materials being burnt.

5:06To her, it was clear that fire did not share the same defining characteristics of other forms of matter. Today, we understand fire as a chemical reaction rather than a distinct state of matter. While Emily did not actually reach that conclusion, she was correct in rebutting Newton and Voltaire's assessment. She must have tried to convince Voltaire of her perspective, but he was stubborn in his belief and continued to attempt various experiments that he believed would prove him right. He needed to be correct because his results would form the basis of his entry to the Royal Academy of Sciences' 1738 essay competition.

5:55Voltaire had been long snubbed by the Royal Literary Society, and was perhaps turning to the sciences for more recognition that he felt he deserved. The topic that year for the competition was the nature and propagation of fire, and the competition was the reason the pair began their experiments in the first place. Originally intending to act solely as Voltaire's assistant, Emily was so determined to communicate the true results that she decided to write her own entry. She later confessed to a friend that she only began writing her paper two weeks before the deadline and included a modest disclaimer at the end of the entry.

6:45Quote, I hope that my love for the truth will stand for me in place of eloquence, and that the sincere desire that I have to contribute to knowledge will gain forgiveness for my faults. End quote. She submitted her entry anonymously and only told Voltaire that she submitted at all after the winner was announced. They both lost. Though she feared he might react negatively, he was seemingly quite pleased, campaigning for both of their papers to be published despite losing. Born for the arts of pleasing, he once wrote of her, she prefers the truth. Emily's paper, Dissertation on the Nature and Propagation of Fire, was published in 1739 for its intellectual merit.

7:40It became the first work the Academy published by a woman. Emily still insisted on anonymity, although the author would have been clear to those in the right circles. The essay was ultimately attributed to, quote, a young lady of high rank. By the time her essay was published, Emily was already finishing work on what is now considered her magnum opus, Institutions de Physique. While part one of this two-part series introduced you to Emily, part two will explore in more depth her short but impactful intellectual career before she tragically passed away in 1749. Famous during her time, lost behind Voltaire's shadow in history, and now honored once again, Emily's legacy ultimately belongs to her achievements.

8:40As described by the Academy, she was, quote, a young woman of the first condition who honors our sciences by the taste she has for them. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. When we last left Emily, it was the summer of 1735, and she had made the decision to leave Paris to join Voltaire at Cirée, the du Chalet estate in Champagne outside of the city. Voltaire, if you recall, had gotten into trouble with the government yet again, and Emily and her husband were given the right to sequester him outside of the city in sort of a glamorous house arrest. Emily was known to follow her own path, but she still worried about both public opinion and the opinion of her husband in making such an unorthodox choice in joining her lover.

9:42While her husband, the Marquis, was not known to be jealous and had just recently used his status to advocate for Voltaire, Emily was moving in with another man. Writing to a mutual friend, she asked him to assuage her husband's potential doubts. Quote, Just speak to him of Voltaire, but with interest and affection, and above all, try to insinuate that it would be crazy to be jealous of a wife with whom one is content, that one esteems, and who conducts herself well. Emily Duchatlet, a pioneering woman in philosophy and, considering that Voltaire was in fact her lover, gaslighting. Her husband agreed with her assessment.

10:33When he began to deliver his wife's manuscripts from Syrie to Parisian publishers, he did the same for Voltaire's. On leave from a campaign, her husband spent the winter of 1738 in Syrie, cohabitating with his wife and her famous lover. Despite his lack of showmanship, he participated in the plays and operas the couple frequently staged for friends. As for the public's opinion, newspapers painted the pair as artist and muse, which was a more acceptable arrangement than extramarital paramours. Gossip, of course, still persisted. A year after Emily arrived at the estate, she wrote to the Italian philosopher Francesco Agaratti saying, quote, This was true in multiple ways.

11:34Sire, for better and for worse, isolated her from society. Voltaire acknowledged that she made a sacrifice when she chose to live by his side, writing that she was, quote, quote, someone who had done everything for me, who, for me, left Paris, all her friends, and all of the charms of life, end quote. While Emily no longer had access to the pleasures of society, she also was free from many of society's restrictions. There were inevitable trade-offs. Emily had more time to devote herself to her studies than she would have in Paris, but she was now also responsible for overseeing a country estate and its tenants.

12:23Siree, as a home, was in disrepair, needing constant expensive upkeep. She bemoaned the sort of housework that had been designated to women, in this case specifically wealthy women who owned estates, writing of, quote, the pointlessness of life she could have avoided, quote, if I had been a man. That was in a letter to her tutor, Mont-Pertuis. At least at Siret, she no longer had to wait for him outside of mail-only cafes for philosophical discussion. At the estate, he would come to her. Siret, the estate, became Émilie's intellectual haven. In her words, mon académie. She meant that, semi-literally, Siret began to host fellow intellectuals, such as Montpetuil, who stayed for extended periods of time to work on his own projects.

13:20As a hostess, Émilie did not play the role of the traditional noblewoman. Guests were expected to fall into her and Voltaire's established routine. For less intellectually inclined visitors, such as the Marquis's cousin, Madame Graffigny, this could be intimidating. Graffigny noted she studied Locke in preparation for her stay. According to her, guests were summoned in the morning to Voltaire's rooms, where he or Emily would read aloud for an hour and a half. One morning, Emily read a book that proposed the inhabitants of Jupiter must be as large as King Og of the Old Testament, based on distance and light.

14:14Greffigny was, quote, astonished when she noticed the book Emily was reading from was in Latin. Emily had been translating the text out loud into French on the spot and was making her own calculations in real time to describe the size of the mythical giant. Thanks to visiting friends making deliveries, Emily and Voltaire began to build their library. For Emily, this was an opportunity to pursue studies in new fields, to discover the knowledge that had been denied to her through a lack of secondary education. Quote, I have a very pretty library, she wrote to Algarotti. Quote, Voltaire's is all anecdotes and mine is all philosophy.

15:06In this letter, she was enticing the Italian philosopher to, quote, spend the winter philosophizing with us, and he accepted the invitation. It was during his six-week stay that he worked on his, quote, Newton for the Ladies, an introduction to Newton's work portrayed as a conversation between the author and a woman who took some inspiration from Emily herself. More on this Italian philosopher later. Sirre's growing library, its collection of Locke and Newton in particular, was responsible for Emily's growing interest in natural philosophy. While it was surely Voltaire who acquired Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, it was Emily who devoured the text.

15:59She finished her translation in October 1736. transforming the book through, in her own words, quote, my own reflections on the material I was working on, including her thoughts on women's education quoted in the first part of the series. While Emily thought Mandeville's work was brilliant, she was not as cynical as he was, and she added her own nuance to his perception of a vice and a virtue. Emily's commentary was made distinct from the original text through quotation marks. In the book's preface, she told readers she found literal translations dry and preferred, quote, lively turns of phrase and animated expressions that render the force and grace of the original.

16:53At the same time, Emily collaborated with Voltaire on his work. His unpublished treatise on metaphysics, which took on little topics like God, society, and human nature, was believed to have been written at Emily's request and with her assistance. She would be more involved in his next project, Elements of the Philosophy of Newton, for which she is credited as a co-author in its introduction. Inspired by Agarato's translation of Newton for an Italian audience, it was the first published introduction to Newton in French. It was also Voltaire's first foray into the world of science. While he believed in Newtonian theory, he was not as mathematically minded as Emily was, and he sometimes struggled with even basic calculations.

17:49Emily, by contrast, found herself thriving in the scientific work. It was she who filled pages of notes with commentary on the movements of the planets, the relativity of motion, and the weight of air and water. It is clear which sections of the publication were written by Emily because the same ideas show up later in her own works. Her writing style was also distinct from Voltaire's. neat and full of real-world applications. In the book's dedication addressed to Emily, Voltaire writes, quote,

18:41In the front piece of one edition, Voltaire sits at his desk, dressed as an ancient philosopher. Two figures are depicted as gods above him. Newton, on the left, sits atop a cloud and gazes at a ray of light descending from the heavens. Emily, on the right, holds a mirror to reflect the light down upon the page Voltaire is writing. While the engraving acknowledges her presence in the work, it's also somewhat demeaning. She is portrayed with one breast bare, and she simply reflects the light rather than creating something of her own. The Muse. Voltaire, while ultimately supportive of Emily's work both publicly and privately, was still a man in the 18th century.

19:36In letters to male friends, we see him use subtly mocking nicknames such as My Lady Emily Newton that were thus passed around in the intellectual circles of Parisian men that Emily was excluded from. While seemingly pleased with their collaborations, Emily had a greater drive for scientific discovery than Voltaire did. Following their experiments for the Royal Academy's essay competition, Emily became obsessed with learning through experimentation, working day and night. Her preferred strategy for staying awake was to put her hands in ice water, walk around the room, slapping them on her arms, and then return to her writing.

20:28R.I.P. Emily, you would have loved a lemon-lime Celsius. Physics became a focal point for her. While she waited on the results of the essay competition, she asked Voltaire's bookseller in Paris to procure for her her own copy of Newton's Principia to be covered in Russian leather with gold tooling, as well as, quote, all the books of physique that you will find come your way. Another book Emily was particularly excited about was the new release of Algarotti's Newton for the Ladies, which he had promised to dedicate to her, which we had mentioned earlier. Emily had even been learning more Italian and, quote, training myself in the art of translation with the idea of writing a French version of the book.

21:21When she got her hands on a copy in May of 1738, however, she was shocked at what she saw. For one, it was not actually dedicated to her. Then there was the matter of the character allegedly inspired by her. Al-Gharati belittled her intelligence and wrote their conversations about Newtonian principles as often devolving into sexual jokes and metaphors. One particular joke about a famous calculation annoyed Emily so much that she mentioned it in letters to friends on three separate occasions. Voltaire rose to her defense, declaring that she knew more than Algarati, despite the fact that he, Voltaire, likely contributed to the way that people perceived Emily as frivolous, thanks to his little nicknames.

22:17It was not long, however, before Emily's own work was recognized and published by the Academy. She was evidently quite proud of that particular accomplishment. Amongst her papers catalogued following her death was the notarized receipt of submission signed by the secretary of the Academy, Fontenelle, whom she had known since childhood. He likely had no idea whose entry he was signing off on at the time. given that she had submitted it anonymously, wanted it evaluated for its intellectual merit. With formal recognition from the scientific community, Amélie's next step was to write her own treatise on natural philosophy.

23:05The publication of her work on fire had given her great confidence. It was her first step towards her, quote, glory, as described in her posthumously published Discourse on Happiness. Her 1740 work, Institutions de Physique, was originally intended as foundational teaching material for her then 10-year-old son, Florent Louis. The text would contain, in her words, truths which I want to engrave on his soul. The work evolved, however, to cover what she called a, quote, vast terrain, far beyond her lessons for her son or even her previous work with Voltaire. The text introduced readers to the foundations of Newton, but also combined philosophy and physics to attempt a, quote, unified theory, which would describe not only how things happen in the universe, but why they happen in the particular way they do.

24:12She presented Newtonian ideas, yes, but also the ideas of Descartes and those of the German philosophers Wolf and Leibniz. At this time, all students of philosophy would have been familiar with the 1717 correspondence between Leibniz and the Newtonian Samuel Clark, which popularized the belief that their calculations were fundamentally opposed. Emily looked beyond this binary to see the value in both perspectives. Some scholars believe her viewpoint paved the way for the one developed by Immanuel Kant later in the century. A great source of her inspiration came from time she spent in Brussels, where in 1739, she, her husband, and Voltaire all briefly moved to claim a Duchelet property there that was being contested.

25:16It was in Brussels she took lessons from a tutor who had studied under the German philosopher Wolf. In her opinion, quote, When it concerns a book of physique, one must ask if it is good, not if the author is English, German, or French. Emily was not afraid to question, even sometimes reject, the conclusion of the, quote, great men, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, you name them. Her criticism of these figures, combined with her reverence for them, is what makes her work so unique. It would be another year and a half before her book was published, notably under her own name. She sent the first copies to Frederick of Prussia, to her tutor, Montpertou, and her other intellectual correspondents.

26:10The prominent Journal des Savants published a positive review, which was likely an enormous confidence boost. One recipient of an early copy, the new secretary of the Academy following Fontenelle's retirement, was not as pleased. If you recall the introduction to part one of the series, Emily's book featured an accurate disavowal of the calculation that force is proportional to velocity. In his first public act, the new secretary of the academy published a pamphlet attacking her argument. Far from his intention, the publication only further established Emily's legitimacy. What other woman had the academy deigned to acknowledge, let alone engage in public academic debate with?

27:06The secretary, Moraine, was shocked when Emily fought back with a 37-page response of her own. She picked apart his letter, paragraph by paragraph, and matched his condescending, sarcastic tone. However the public decides, she wrote, I hold myself honored always to dispute against a person of your merit. It seems this was not just polite posturing. She wrote in private letters to friends that she was excited to have such an adversary. Still, she, quote, wanted to pierce him to the soul. Quote, the conclusions that you have drawn were always false because that which implies contradiction can never become true.

27:58She notes that she could break down exactly why his claims were false again, but only, quote, if I had wanted to bore my readers. The secretary did not issue another response. In Parisian circles, it was decided that Emily won the debate handedly. Quote, his has succeeded very badly, she wrote to her tutor. it has had three quarters of the success of mine. Her book was a great success, partly fueled by the publicity of the debate, and it received much public praise from academics. As Emily found new success, her relationship with Voltaire became strained. For one, he deemed himself no longer capable of sex due to his various chronic illnesses.

28:52Voltaire never had a large sexual appetite, which Emily accepted, but abstinence altogether was difficult for her. At the same time, he became increasingly upset over her diverging views. So dedicated to Newton, he deemed Emily's book a Leibnizian work, despite its fusion of multiple viewpoints. Voltaire began to mock Emily more frequently in his letters, and even published a critical review of her work. To be fair, this was something Emily had also done in earlier years, though in better spirits. Most pettily, in his revised 1741 edition of Elements, he cut down his dedication, erasing his praise and diminishing Emily's contributions.

29:45It is perhaps worth noting that Emily's book was better received than Elements. Over the past few years, Emily's book Institutions was translated into both Italian and German. Emily was elected to the Bologna Academy of Sciences, where she chose the name Uranie, the poetic name Voltaire had once given her, as her honorific. She was especially excited to not be the only woman in the room. The Newtonian Laura Bossy, a lecturer at the University of Bologna, was another member, and she used Emily's book as material in her classes. It was, quote, an encouragement for persons of my sex, Emily wrote, to engage in and cultivate the sciences from which prejudice had up to the present appeared to exclude them.

30:45In Germany, it was likely that it was the philosopher Wolf himself who arranged for the translation. Despite his initial disbelief that the work was actually written by a woman, he came to accept Emily as a, quote, phenomenon, appreciating, quote, the clarity with which she can talk about the subtlest things. In the summer of 1744, Emily had the idea for her largest project yet, a translation and commentary on Newton's notoriously difficult Principia. She embarked on this project during the busiest time of her life. Quote, I lead the life of the world's most disordered. I pass my days in the antechamber of the Minister of War to obtain a regiment for my son.

31:37I go to bed at four in the morning, and I work when I have the time. Spoken like a real woman trying to have it all. She had recently relocated from Siri to Louis' court in favor of the advancement of her son, as well as to support Voltaire's ambitions to join the Academy. And Emily struggled to balance the lifestyle of the intellectual with the lifestyle of the courtier. In her day, no other physicist or philosopher had undertaken even a partial translation of Newton's Principia. But Emily intended to translate all three volumes. The work was so complicated that many contemporaries, including her tutor Morpichu, acknowledged that they found it hard to follow.

32:33It was not just a simple translation either. She had to choose which mathematician's interpretations of the work to include and add her own calculations, even if they contradicted Newton's. While she was on course to have the translation published in 1746, she had to pause in 1745 following a revelation. Voltaire, it appeared, had regained his sexual appetite, only not for Emily. She had discovered a collection of letters between Voltaire and Marie-Louise Denis, a 33-year-old widow and Voltaire's own niece. Though rumors circulated, Emily did not go public with the scandalous betrayal, and details were only uncovered after the letters were sold at auction in the 1950s.

33:34She wrote about her reaction to the discovery, withholding specific details in her posthumously published book. In their years without a sexual relationship, Emily believed, quote, I was loving for two. I spent all my time with him and my heart, free from suspicion, delighted in the pleasure of loving and in the illusion of believing myself loved. But now, quote, I have lost this happy state, and this cost me many tears. They eventually rekindled their friendship. Voltaire's place in her life as a collaborator and friend was ultimately more important to Emily than his place as a lover, despite their ten years spent together.

34:24She wrote, quote, Terrible shocks are needed to break such chains. The wound to my heart bled for a long time. I had ground to complain, and I have pardoned all. End quote. Once recovered from heartbreak, Emily returned to Newton. She transported her books, her notes, and her drafts to the court at Luneville, where she joined her family and settled in to work. It was during this time, however, that a new lover entered her life. Jean-Francois de Saint-Lambert was ten years younger than she was, an officer of the King's Guard and a novice poet. He was no intellectual match for Emily, or Voltaire for that matter, but that wasn't important to her at the time.