The Master of Arts

After looking so far forward to the origins of the Principia, it comes almost as a shock to realize that young Isaac Newton was still barely twenty-four years old, not yet a Master of Arts, when he returned to Cambridge in 1667. It would be strange indeed if he were not now far more conscious of his own potentiality in the world of learning than he had been before the plague. Five years into the future he would be arguing for his own discoveries on equal terms with the acknowledged leaders of the scientific movement in Europe. As yet, however, he stood on the lowest rung of the ladder of academic promise and his name was unknown. Newton had a chance of a minor fellowship at Trinity College at the next election, in the coming October, and no doubt hoped for something from the support of his family connection, Humphrey Babington. Candidates for the fellowship had to submit, at least in theory, to four days of oral examination by the Seniors in the college chapel. By whatever means, and whoever was convinced of his merits, Newton was indeed among the chosen. He was assigned the ‘Spiritual Chamber’ to reside in, but probably remained where he was with his friend (and amanuensis) John Wickins, renting out the room allotted to him. Trinity College now paid him ‘wages’ of £2 per annum, gave him allowances for livery and commons (that is, clothing and food) and allowed him his share (‘dividend’) of the college revenues. Trinity also assigned him his first pupil, a Fellow-commoner named St Leger Scroope, who made no mark in history.