Dinner at Trinity

Principia Mathematica has just appeared, and Newton, who dislikes company and dislikes controversy more, has agreed to a dinner at Trinity for two men who can understand it. Locke has come up from London, and Leibniz, visiting England, has come to test the rumours about the book and its author.

Newton explains how the same force governs the fall of an apple and the orbit of the moon, and Leibniz presses him on the mathematics behind it — a question that will soon become a war over priority. Locke, less interested in mechanics, steers the talk toward government and toleration, and Newton, who has thought hard about both, surprises him with the strength of his views. A haunch of venison, a pasty, and a custard tart carry them into the night.