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Newton suffered some kind of "nervous breakdown" after the completion of the Principia. He complained that he could not sleep， and said that he lacked the "former consistency of his mind". He wrote angry letters to friends and then apologized; he protested bitterly to John Locke, for example, that the philosopher had attempted to "embroil him with women".
写完《原理》，牛顿得了某种"神经崩溃症"。他诉说自己睡不着觉，缺乏"原先的思维连贯性"。他给朋友写去泄愤的信件，然后又向他们道歉。比如，他曾愤懑地向约翰·洛克抗议说，这位哲学家曾企图"使他卷入绯闻"。
In 1696 Newton abandoned the academic life for the position of Warden, later Master, of theMint. Honors for his scientific achievements continued to come to him: he was knighted in 1705 and served many years as president of the Royal Society.
1696 年，牛顿放弃学术生涯，就任造币厂厂长的职位，后又充任该厂掌管人。但他的科研成就继续给他带来荣誉：他于1705年被封为爵士，还当了多年皇家学会会长。
Although he made no important discoveries in the last quarter century of his life, Newton's last years were not barren of ideas. Now famous and honored, he felt secure enough to offer many public speculations on scientific problems. He suggested various possible hypotheses asto the "cause" of gravitation and speculated on the nature of the "ether", the size of theconstituent units of matter, the forces of electricity and magnetism, the cause of muscular response to the "commands of the will", the origins of sensation, the creation of the world, the ultimate destiny of man. In the century after Newton, physical experimenters followed up many of his bold speculations.
牛顿在生命的最后二十五年中虽然没有作出重大发现，但他在晚年并非再无新鲜见解。这时他声名卓著，受人敬重，不再感到有什么顾忌了，于是对科学上的问题公开提出了许多推断与猜测。他对万有引力的"成因"作了各种可能的假设，还对以下种种加以推测：醚的性质、物质组成单位的大小、电力与磁力、肌肉对"意志所发指令"作出反应的原因、知觉的来源、世界的创造以及人类的最终命运。在牛顿之后的整整一百年中，物理学实验人员对他的许多大胆推测与猜测作了进一步研究。
Newton is often described as the inaugurators of the "Age of Reason". Alexander Pope expressed the sentiment of his time in the famous lines:
牛顿常被称为"理性时代"的开创者，亚历山大·蒲柏则以他的著名的诗句表达了他那个时代的感受：
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
大自然与自然法则为夜色笼罩：
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.
上帝说道，让牛顿降生！万物顿被阳光普照。
