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TAYLOR, WILLIAM. 



TAYLOR, GENERAL ZACHARY. 



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He afterwards passed two sessions at tho University of Glasgow, 

 where his talents and acquirements were duly recognised, and ho 

 received three gold medals. In 1837 ho proceeded to Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, of which he was ultimately elected a Fellow, having taken 

 his degree as a Junior Optimo, and in the first class of the classical 

 tripos. His reputation subsequently gained him the chair of Engli-h 

 language and literature at the University College,. London. In 1845 

 he was called to the bar, as a member of the Inner-Temple, and he 

 went the Northern Circuit. During his residence in London, after 

 having Cambridge, he became known as a popular writer, and 

 ;iy iii tli at remarkable publication, 'Punch,' for succeeding in 

 which the necessary qualifications of acute observation and condensed 

 ;;, a knowledge of real life and a good-natured power of seizing 

 " folly as it flies " are not widely distributed. As a dramatic writer 

 Sir. Taylor has displayed the same qualities in many an amusing piece, 

 of which, if the basis be not original the superstructure has nothing 

 incongruous. He has also very ably put together the instructive 

 memorials of the unfortunate Haydou, in which he has told the story 

 of his enthusiasm and his weakness with a delicate tact. In 1850 

 Mr. Taylor was appointed to the Assistant-Secretaryship of the Board 

 of Health ; and the Board being reconstructed in 1854, he became 

 the Secretary. In this position he has practically refuted the vulgar 

 notion that a man of genius cannot be a good man of business ; that 

 poetry and political economy are incompatible. He has laboured in 

 'iai duties with as much earnestness as in his most cherished 

 pursuits; and his administrative capacity will naturally carry him 

 forward to higher offices than the responsible one which he has so 

 ably filled. 



TAYLOR, WILLIAM, was born at Norwich, in the year 1765. He 

 wa-< the only child of an eminent merchant of that city. He first 

 studied under a Swiss refugee, and afterwards became a pupil of Mr. 

 Ilochemont Barbauld, the Unitarian minister, at Palgrave, a tutor 

 chiefly selected on account of his religious opinions, which were those 

 of Mr. Taylor and his family. To Mrs. Barbauld, better known as 

 Miss Aikiu, Taylor was indebted for much assistance in his early 

 studies ; aided by her assiduous care, he soon acquired a correct 

 knowledge of the principles of English composition, and, in after life, 

 he gratefully acknowledged his obligations to this celebrated woman, 

 whom he styled " the mother of his mind." On leaving the house of 

 Mr. Barbauld, at the age of fourteen, he was placed in his counting- 

 house at Norwich by his father, who was desirous that he should 

 succeed him in his large and prosperous business. Shortly afterwards 

 he was sent on the Continent, under the care of one of the partners 

 of the firm, for the purpose of perfecting himself in the French 

 and Italian languages, which were of importance to the proper con- 

 ducting of his father's business. Before leaving England, he had 

 already evinced considerable facility in acquiring a knowledge of lan- 

 guages ; and he had been but a short time abroad when his letters to 

 his parents, in English, French, and Italian, at the early age of fifteen, 

 ave the promise of that eminence as a writer to which he afterwards 

 rose. On his return to his native city, he was encouraged in the pro- 

 secution of his studies by the fond admiration of his parents and friends; 

 and for the two years he remained there, he appears to have given 

 the tone to its literary circles. A second tour to the Continent was 

 resolved upon ; and he proceeded to Germany with the view of 

 acquiring a familiar acquaintance with, its language and literature. A 

 residence of a year with a clergyman at Paderborn was sufficient for 

 this purpose. Under the influence of his preceptor he imbibed a taste 

 not only for the literature of Germany, but for the philosophy of that 

 country : a taste which ever afterwards characterised his writings. 

 On his second return to Norwich, at the age of eighteen, his parents 

 perceived that their son had an imagination too lively, and a taste 

 too decided for literary pursuits, to allow him to devote himself to 

 the mercantile profession. The affluent circumstances of the father, 

 added to the gratification which he enjoyed of seeing his sour arrived 

 at so early an age to a high distinction in letters, induced him to forego 

 the strict accomplishment of his favourite project, and to put no 

 restrictions to the youth's inclinations. The time of young Taylor 

 was now chiefly occupied in making various contributions to tho 

 periodicals, and to translations from the best German writers. 



When the French revolution had convulsed the Continent of Europe, 

 it extended its influence over no small proportion of the English 

 nation ; of this influence the mind of Taylor was adapted to feel the 

 force, and he soon became ambitious to add to his other distinctions 

 that of being a prominent political character. The quiet of study was 

 now exchanged for the noisy meetings of political debaters. Taylor 

 allowed himself to be enrolled as secretary of a democratic club estab- 

 lished at Norwich. His political activity however, so far from inter- 

 fering with his desire to obtain literary distinction, served as a stimulus 

 to bring his writings before the public, and thus to extend his reputa- 

 tion beyond the narrow sphere of his native place. 



A poetical translation of the ' Lenore ' of Burger was the first 

 publication by which he became generally known. This translation, 

 which preceded that of Spencer, still maintains a high reputation for 

 spirit and accuracy. It contains some variations from the original; 

 that of the most importance being the liberty he has taken to transfer 

 the scene of the poem, which in Burger is towards the end of the 

 Seven Years' War, to tho time of the Crusades; in this he has been 



followed by Sir Walter Scott, to whom the public is also indebted for a 

 translation of ' Lenore.' This work was soon after followed by several 

 other poetical translations fiom the eame author. Specimens of the 

 other German poets, by him, also appeared in various magazines and 

 periodicals. These he afterwards collected together, with explanatory 

 observations, and published in 1830, in three large volumes, under the 

 title, ' Survey of German Poetry.' The peculiar metre to which he 

 has adapted many of these translations, and a peculiar style of expres- 

 sion, have exposed him to some severe criticisms. 



In the year 1798 he became acquainted with Southey, whoso 

 political opinions in early life were similar to hw own ; an interesting 

 collection of their correspondence will be found in the biography of 

 Taylor, referred to at the end of this article. In one of tliern he 

 describes his first interview with Sir James Mackintosh and Dr. Parr; 

 and vividly, though not perhaps impartially, delineates their manner 

 and peculiarities (vol. i. p. 295). 



Severe losses, consequent upon the war of the French Revolution, 

 induced Mr. Taylor to retire from the management of his father's 

 business : a circumstance which enabled him to devote a greater 

 portion of his time to his favourite studies. Magazines and Reviews 

 still continued to be the principal vehicles by which his writings came 

 before the public. As a reviewer, he was remarkable for his close 

 attention and extensive information on the subject he reviewed. 

 Though not profound as a classical or an Oriental scholar, he in a 

 great measure supplied his deficiency in that respect by his intimate 

 acquaintance with the German translations of the classics, and the 

 commentaries upon them. The style however of hia prose writings 

 was so peculiar, tha 1 . it was disrelished by many of his readers ; and 

 it became a source of constant altercation between him and the 

 editors of the works to which he contributed. " Were I reviewing 

 my own reviewals," he writes to Southey, " I should say this man's 

 style has an ambitious singularity, which, like chewing ginseng, dis- 

 pleases at first, and attaches at last. In his pursuit of the ' curiosa 

 felicitas ' he often sacrifices felicity to curiosity of expression. With 

 much philological knowledge, and much familiarity among tha 

 European classics of all sorts, his innovations are mostly defensible, 

 and his allusions mostly pertinent; yet they have both an unusuality 

 which startles, and which, if ultimately approved, provokes at least 

 an anterior discussion that is unpleasant." A pleasing feature in the 

 reviews of Taylor is the enthusiasm with which he entered into his 

 subject, but which led him occasionally to hazard assertions which, 

 on cooler reflection, he often disavowed. Thus it is stated that in one 

 of his papers on the prose of "Milton, he expresses the conviction that 

 it is superior to his poetry. 



In 1802, on his return from a visit to Paris, Mr. Taylor accepted 

 the management of a weekly local paper, ' The Norwich Iris,' after 

 having used his endeavours to induce Southey to undertake it. This 

 paper became the organ of the party to whose political opinions he 

 was attached ; its success however was not equal to his anticipations, 

 and it was given up after two years. He then applied himself anew 

 to his reviewing labours, the changes which had taken place in his 

 family circumstances affording him an additional motive for literary 

 exertion. The Monthly Review, under the editorship of Dr. Griffiths, 

 was the work in which the greatest number of his contributions 

 appeared. In 180G he gave to the public his version of Lessing's 

 ' Nathan the Wise ;' which was severely criticised in the Edinburgh 

 Review. A succession of pecuniary losses which soon after occurred, 

 rendered the position of Mr. Taylor's family, if not one of privation, 

 at least of diminished comfort. His adversity however was cheered 

 by the kindly sympathies of his numerous friends, and by several 

 unexpected offers of assistance, which, though not accepted, were 

 sensibly felt and gratefully responded to. At the same time increase 

 of years and premature infirmities diminished his energies, and his 

 later productions have not added to his fame. Among his last works 

 was a collection of short essays on English Synonyms, which, though 

 incomplete and frequently fanciful, are calculated to assist the philo- 

 logical student, and to lay the foundation of a more complete under- 

 taking. The last years of hia life were embittered by the loss of the 

 aged parents, to whom he had proved himself a devoted and affec- 

 tionate son, and by the decay of his mental powers. He died in the 

 month of March 1836 ; his remains were deposited beside those of 

 his parents, in the cemetery of the Octagon Chapel at Norwich. 



Mr. Taylor's chief claim Jto literary celebrity consists in his valuable 

 translations from the German ; it was through him that the English 

 first became acquainted with the modern literature of Germany. If 

 his talents as a poet Were unequal to the task of producing such a 

 translation as the Wallenstein of Coleridge, to him at least must be 

 assigned the merit of having been the first in the field, and perhaps to 

 have laboured in it more assiduously than any other English writer. 



(Memoir of the Life and Writings of the late William Taylor, of 

 Norwich, &c., by T. W. Hobberds, F.G.S., of Norwich, 2 vols. Svo, 

 London, 1843 ; Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxxiii p. 27-68.) 



TAYLOR, GENERAL ZACHARY, late President of the United 

 States of North America, was born Sept. 24, 1784, in Orange County, 

 Virginia. He was tho third son of Col. Richard Taylor, who had distin- 

 guished himself in the war of the Revolution, and who in 1785 removed 

 with his family to Kentucky, where the settlers were then very few. Col. 

 Taylor obtained from President Jefferson, May 3, 1803, a commission 



