Emilie Du Chatelet's Influence In The 18th Century

Intro -"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. 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. When I add the sum total of my graces, I confess I am inferior to no one."
Mme du Châtelet to Frederick the Great of Prussia; The Divine Mistress, (Oregon 1). This was the philosophy of the rational, yet lavish, the disciplined, yet reckless, and the undeniably esteemed Madame Emilie du Chatelet. Her expansive interests and unquenchable desire for knowledge spread her paints far and wide upon the bare canvas of women’s influences in the 18th century. Emilie du Chatelet widely contributed to the
At the very heart of the Age of Enlightenment, she held nothing back, living life to the fullest, and expanding her horizons far beyond the panorama that the stationary eye could behold.
After Chatelet’s aforementioned epiphany, she reverted back to her childhood passion for reading, and started deeply studying Descartes, Newton, and John Locke, who was quite popular amongst the radical thinkers of the day. Soon after, she met Voltaire, one of the most legendary Enlightenment-era writers and philosophers, who instantly swooned over her captivating charms and peerless intelligence. To one of his close friends, he wrote, “She is beautiful, and she knows how to be a friend… I swear to you, she has a genius worthy of Horace and Newton.” By the time she was twenty-six, they had begun courtship. Soon they rebuilt Cirey-sur-Blaise, an isolated chateau, to serve as a research institute in which they resided, cultivating the mind. This was to go down in history as one of the most compelling affairs of the