Discourse on Happiness
Emilie wrote a fifteen-page essay written when she lived with Voltaire at Cirey in the late 1730s and into the 1740s when she was a courtier at Louis XV's Versailles. This essay was more than likely put on the backburner whenever she wrote about her scientific pursuits. However, this essay was inspired by thoughts from Madeville, Locke, Alexander Pope, and Voltaire. Her essay was addressed specifically to the elite class. Her argument concerned their happiness which came with the suspension of prejudice as a defining point for a rational person. In the beginning of the essay, Emilie followed the thought patterns written and established by men. However, halfway through the essay she reveals the truth about her gender and uses examples from her own life to support her arguments.
Examinations of the Bible (and other ideas)
On the Bible: "Neither the person, nor the author of this book, nor the country, nor the time when it was written is known. Some say it is only an allegory (a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning), others that what is told happens in a dream. Others assert that it is a piece of poetry, and a few have even wanted to find exposition, dialogues, action, and denouncement. In other words, a kind of dramatic poem.."
On Creationism: "Each discovery men made in physics and astronomy revealed to us a new absurdity in the history of the creation."
On the Immaculate Conception: "A very strong objection that the Fathers raise themselves is why Jesus Christ chose a married woman for his mother, since it is claimed that, according to the prophecies, the messiah must be born of a virgin... Was this not, say the Fathers, to set a trap for us and to expose the mystery of the incarnation of the calumny."
On Getting into Heaven: "...a young man comes to ask Jesus what he must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; and Jesus tells him... that it is much easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven... But Jesus, in passing this sentence, sentenced half the world. For there he gave a precept on poverty that all the world cannot follow; for it is necessary that the riches be in the hands of someone, and it is equally impossible for all the world to be poor as for all the world to be rich..."
Emilie's Translation of "The Fable of the Bees":
Bernard Mandeville published the Fable of the Bees in 1723 - a collection of satirical fables written to expose and entertain British society, specifically their hypocrisy and greed. After Emilie learned to read English, she decided to translate Mandeville's fables from English to French. She wrote an accompanying essay to explain how and why she made her translations. She included an impassioned plea for the rights of women within in essay. Below is an excerpt from her introduction:
"Judge me for my own merits, or lack of them, but do not look upon me as a mere appendage to this great general or that great scholar, this star that shines at the court of France or that famed author. I am in my own right a whole person, responsible to myself alone for all that I am, all that I say, all that I do. It may be that there are metaphysicians and philosophers whose learning is greater than mine, although I have not met them. Yet, they are but frail humans, too, and have their faults; so, when I add the sum total of my graces, I confess I am inferior to no one."
"Let us do a little thinking why for centuries, never a good tragedy, a good poem, a story estimated a beautiful picture, a good physics book, is out of the hands of women. Why these creatures whose understanding appears in every so similar to that of men seem determined by an invisible force below the barrier, and that gives me the reason, if you can. I leave it to the naturalists in looking for the physical, but until they have found, women will be entitled to claim against their education. For I confess that if I were a king, I would do the physics experiment."
