Time and Time Again

Historical Note

In 1687 Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia, a work generally acknowledged to be the most influential publication in the history of science. In the book, Newton described his three laws of motion and thus revolutionized human understanding of the physical universe.

Six years later in 1692 Newton suffered a nervous breakdown. The symptoms included insomnia, deep depression and debilitating paranoia. This crisis in Newton’s life is known as his ‘Black Year’, a period during which even his closest friends and associates thought he had gone insane.

Newton eventually recovered his mental faculties but had seemingly lost all interest in science. He turned his attention instead to the study of alchemy and the search for hidden meanings in the Bible.

In 1696 he became a civil servant, taking an administrative job at the Royal Mint. The world’s greatest physicist, mathematician and natural philosopher was to remain in this position until his death, thirty years later.

The cause of Newton’s breakdown and his subsequent retirement from science was not known during his lifetime and remained a mystery thereafter.

Newton’s Epitaph by Alexander Pope:

Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night;

God said, ‘Let Newton be’ and all was light.