Science Must Be Open

Instead of being ashamed that so little has been hitherto done by female abilities, in science and in useful literature, I am surprised that so much has been effected. Till of late, women were kept in Turkish ignorance; every means of acquiring knowledge was discountenanced by fashion, and impracticable even to those who despised fashion. Our books of science were full of unintelligible jargon, and mystery veiled pompous ignorance from public contempt; but now, writers must offer their discoveries to the public in distinct terms, which everybody may understand; technical language will no longer supply the place of knowledge, and the art of teaching has been carried to great perfection by the demand for leaming: all this is in favour of women. Many things, which were thought to be above their comprehension, orunsuited to their sex, have now been found to be perfectly within the compass of their abilities, and peculiarly suited to their situation. Botany has become fashionable; in time it may become useful, if it be not so already. Science has 'been enlisted under the banners of imagination, by the irresistible charms of genius; by the same power her votaries will be led from the looser analogies which dress out the imagery of poetry, to the stricter ones which form the ratiocination of philosophy. (Maria Edgeworth, 1795, pp. 64-6)

An appeal to making science open to the public and including women in its fold.