The apple falls before it hits Newton's nose
a man named Newton, who was hit by an apple, and who discovered a law
The bodily collision belongs to the comic version of the anecdote. The Royal Society's account reproduces William Stukeley's 1752 manuscript Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life: Newton recalled wondering why an apple descended vertically, prompted by seeing it fall while he sat thinking. This quoted witness supports an observed fall, not an apple striking his head or nose. The source inspected here is Keith Moore's 2012 institutional article quoting the manuscript, rather than an independent inspection of its original leaves. Royal Society, "Newton's apple tree".
Chesterton then makes the embellishment do philosophical work. That a collision can be described reciprocally—nose hits apple, apple hits nose—is his necessary relation; whether that collision takes place at all remains contingent. The joke is therefore an illustration of his distinction, not historical evidence about Newton's discovery.
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