DISPUTE ABOUT THE INVENTION OF FLUXIONS. 
109 
of the Society to the groundlessness of the charge which might, from an accidental 
omission, have been made against Newton’s veracity; and I am glad it has fallen to 
me to do so. ' 
I can hardly find any notice of this little tract of Dr. Maty. Had it been much 
known I cannot but suppose that the following phrase of Newton would have obtained 
some currency: the English parenthesis, and the italics, are Maty’s, not mine. 
“ Comme tout ce qui regarde les grands hommes peut etre interessant, on sera peut- 
etre bien aise de savoir que Newton a souvent dit a Mr. de Moivre que s’il avoit ete 
moins vieux il auroit ete tente de revoir sur les dernieres observations sa theorie de 
la Lune, ou comme il s’exprimoit de Vattaquer de nouveau {to have another' pull at the 
moon). Je tiens ceci de Mr. de Moivre lui-meme.” 
There is also an interesting fact concerning De Moivre, which is little, if at all, 
cited. Happening one day to have to call on the Earl of Devonshire, he met a man 
whom he did not know coming out of the house. This man was Newton, who had 
come to present a copy of the Principia , and had left it in the antechamber in which 
De Moivre had to wait till the Earl was ready to see him. He opened the book, 
and found to his surprise, that, strong as he knew himself to be, he could only just 
manage to follow the reasoning. He immediately procured a copy ; but as he was 
employed all day in walking about London from one pupil to another, the only way 
in which he could read it was by tearing leaf after leaf, and carrying a few at a time 
in his pocket to look at in his walks and in other intervals. 
It cannot be necessary to remind the Society that the subject of this paper may 
possibly not be the only case in which their records would furnish information on 
points of history which have hitherto been overlooked. These records are a most im- 
portant part of the progress of science in England : and I have often regretted that 
the example set by Dr. Birch has found no follower among those who can appreciate 
the value of minute information. 
