Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/243

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CUB. CUL, CUN. CUS.
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the rectitude of the principle is doubtful: the cultivation of the mind, with its consequent influence upon society, is a more real benefit to mankind than the partial relief of pecuniary exigences.

Juana was not less lamented at her death, than celebrated and respected during her life: her writings were collected in three quarto volumes, to which are prefixed numerous panegyrics upon the author, both in verse and prose, by the most illustrious persons of old and new Spain.

CUBIERE, MADAME DE.

Is a novelist of some talent. She has written the following:—"Emerick de Maurger;" "Leonore de Bizan;" and "Monsieur de Goldau."

CULMAN, ELIZABETH,

Is worthy of a place beside Lucretia Davidson; she died when only seventeen years old. Miss Culman was born in the year 1816 at St. Petersburg. She was already a prodigy of learning at an age when other children only commence their education. In her fourteenth year she was acquainted with ancient and modern Greek, the Latin, German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese languages and literature, and had then translated the Odes of Anacreon into her vernacular. But just when her mind gave promise of becoming one of the greatest ornaments of her country, death removed her to A higher state of existence. She died in 1833, at St. Petersburg; and a year after her death, her writings, making three volumes, were published in that city.

CUNITIA, or CUNITZ MARIA,

A lady of great genius and learning, was born in Silesia, about the beginning of the seventeenth century. She became, when very young, celebrated for her extensive knowledge in many branches of learning, particularly in mathematics and astronomy, upon which she wrote several ingenious treatises; one of which, under the title of "Urania Propitia," printed in 1650, in Latin and German, she dedicated to Ferdinand the Third, Emperor of Germany. In this work are contained astronomical tables, of great care and accuracy, founded upon Kepler's hypotheses. She acquired languages with amazing facility; and understood Polish, German, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. With equal care she acquired a knowledge of the sciences, history, physic, poetry, painting, music, both vocal and instrumental; and yet they were no more than her amusements. Her favourite studies were mathematics and astronomy; and she was ranked among the ablest astronomers of the age. The exact time of her birth is not known. She married Elias de Lewin, M.D., and died at Pistcheu, in 1664. The name of this learned lady is now little known, but several famous men have borrowed from her works to enrich their own. without any acknowledgment of the real author.

CUSHMAN, CHARLOTTE,

Is an American actress of undoubted originality and genius; she has found a genial biographer in Mary Howitt, from whose sketch of her life, as it appeared in "The People's Journal," we