Section 4: Quicksilver, pages 217-279 Summary

In 1672, Daniel spends two months making a hole in the roof of Gresham College for Hooke who plans to construct a thirty-two-foot long telescope to obtain the proper level of magnification to prove there are stars nearby and farther away and that the Earth moves in an ellipse around the sun. Back at Cambridge, Daniel attends a play about courtly and collegiate intrigue, but it is too much for him to grasp. King Charles II is in attendance, along with the Angleseys and Comstocks. Sitting next to Daniel, Oldenburg asks where Isaac is, and glad to have a pretext for leaving, Daniel makes his way behind the stage where he accidentally runs into two actresses, one of whom, Tess, intrigues him. After a brief encounter with Jeffreys who claims Daniel wants England to be ruled by fear...