T A V 



134 



\ Y 



>i. Though it WM a failure, it was marked by some 



made him 



1 liuu in 



another u . which was li< c of 



:iic philosophy. Introducing ) 



by such nu is enabled to procure pupils, to whom 



hi' taught the langun::c> i.iul nuithi maties, having also 



'..I the 



iragcmcnt of Arts, Manufactures, 

 and Commerce, which he held for several years: he of 

 < up and was glad to be emancipated from the 

 labours of the banking-house. It was in 

 .at he maci live acquaintance 



il'u- men of all professions, and 

 >.; ranks who are promoter* of arU 

 Iv falls to the lot of an obscure 



:ilual : but h.' made something more than mere ac- 



acijiiircd many friends who were able and 



i in all Iiis undertakings, anil with 



,i he iinally accomplished all that he had in 



. whii-h war to translate the works of all the un- 

 translated antient Greek philosophers. It was an arduous 

 le man, ;uid apparently a hopeless one, serins; 

 that Sydenhani, with the advantage of a more regular 

 education, bcin id. and a known and 



acknowledged scholar, liad not only failed in his desire to 

 impa his less learned countrymen by means 



suffered to perish in the 

 attempt for want of patronage, 'to the sorrow and shame 



;-. biographer says i of every friend of literature :' yet 

 Sydeiiham was a good man, hiirhly respected, and had 

 many frie:i -vcd he had : he must have been a re- 



cluse, for the circumstances ol his death seem to have caused 

 surprise. .Mr. Taylor was fond of society, and always in 

 it : there was no appearance of abstraction about him ; 

 and a stranger would not have suspected him of be- 



ludious ; he was always ready to join in conversation 

 with any one who happened to be near him, and upon 

 any subject; there were few subjects upon which he had 

 not read, and he could always amuse or instruct if re- 

 quired. ' Being gifted with a very extraordinary memory, 

 he not only regained the immense store of knowledge he 

 ha 1 amassed, but he could bring it all into use at his will :' 

 he was deep!) n ad in tilings that many like to hear of, 

 though they are no longer studied, sorcery, witchcraft. 

 alchemy, See., and his fund of anecdote was quite inex- 

 haiutible : all this, joined to simple and unobtrusive man- 

 ners, and irreproachable conduct, made him not only an 

 agreeable companion to many, but to some lie became 

 line. Men whose occupations had 



prevented their leading, though they were desirous of 

 knowledge, were particularly delighted with the company 

 'I' Mr. Taylor, am! .such were his great supporters. It 

 was by making friends chiefly that Mr. Taylor, who was 

 as poor as Sydenhum, contrived to print works tliat inu.-t 

 have cost more than lO.WXI/., that were not of the most 

 saleable description, and that upon the whole produced 

 no pecuniary profit. The duke of Norfolk printed Plato, 

 and from some unaccountable whim locked up nearly the 

 whole edition in his house, where it remained till long 

 after his decease, but he was attached to Mr. Taylor, and 

 frequently made him his companion at Arundcl. Mr. 

 Meredith. -man retired from business, was 



a man possessed ol sound mental faculties, with no aver- 

 . '. :ng read Plato he wished al-o to 



read Aristotle in an Ki:gli>h translation, and Mr. Taylor 

 was ready to help him to it upon no other condition than 

 h'.s undertaking to print it. which he did ; and though he 

 made a losing.-; of it, by printing too few i 



he was so well :h M.. 1'aylor's exertions, that 



he. not only assisted him in bringing out some of his minor 

 publications, but settled a pension of 1(K)/. a year upon 

 him, which he enjoyed till his death : mich munificence 

 and lYicmlihip in a man who had earned his money, and 

 knew the value of it, is truly honourable. Mr. Mcicdith. 

 though not versed in the antient languages, obtained a 

 A ledge of antient literature : he was a man who 



.'lit lor himself, and came to just conclusions upon 

 Mr. Taylor's minor works some 



will be fo-.iml dedicated to persons who printed them upon 

 similar term.-. aij<! 1:1 a lew cases gave him the benefit of 

 the :i. lie never exacted pavment for llis 



labour, except in one or two case* with tlie booksellers, 



and then he tedjBMMliMKh. But with such me 



i'\cr :lll hi- ditti, 



! and ha<! 



was about 3H>/. a year. There are some prr-mi-. wh. 

 not at all pleated with Mr. T. .nipt to i. 



certain antieiit opinions: they neither wished 1 

 of the works he ha> translated^ nor his remarks upon them 

 iu English ; but they arc th- ho broug!.' 



writers into notice by constantly referring to them, and 

 speaking of them in terms that are neither liberal nor en- 

 tirely merited. These writers were the supporters of 

 antient opinions and establishments, the failure of in 

 which is now complete and past recovery ; there can ' 

 fore be little to object to in their writings, and tl.. 

 much that is good and worth prescrvi: 

 they found translators in every c-iuli/- 

 land. It seems then that our p: 

 done their duty to the public: II 

 translations with their own annotations, the laboi. 

 Mr. Taylor would not have been called for, and ai 

 marks he might have made elsewhere would have' had 

 little weight, and have been overlooked. Th. 

 nortant works yet untranslated, and there are n; 

 lat inns which arc disgraceful to the literary ch 

 our country : it is time then that our scholars should look 

 to these matters, and sec that things which must and will 

 be done are well done. 



Mr. Taylor, during the last forty years of his life, resided 

 in a small house at \Valworth. leading a life 

 uniformity, and dividing his time between hi> luboui 

 his attentions to his friends and family. lie died on the 

 1st of November, 1835, of a \crypainful i the, 



bladder, which he bore with extraordinary fortitude and 

 without complaining. He was an Academician 

 sion and a Stoic in practice; a sincere friend and 

 lightful companion. His works and tiaiinlations are: 



I, 'The Elements of a New Method of Reasoning iu ' 

 metry,' 4to., 178(), a juvenile performance lost or stip- 



d ; 2, a Paraphrase of part of Ocellus in the 

 European Mii^nziin 1 , 17*2 : a translation of the whole 

 work in 1831, 8vo. : 3. -The Hymn* of Oiphcus,' 12mo., 

 1787; second edition, 1824, augmented ; 4. 'Plotinuson 

 the Beautiful,' 12mo., 17s7 : 5, -A Di>- crtation on the 

 Klciisinian and Bacchic M , ,o.. no date; (j. 'The 



Rights of Unites,' 12mo., 17U2, in ridicule of Paine's 

 Rights of Man ;' 7. ' Sallust on the Gods and the "World, 1 

 8vo., 17'.U: 8, -The Phiedrus of Plato,' 4to., 17'J2 ; 

 9, 'The Cratylus. Phaedon, Parmenides, and Tin. 

 8vo., 1793; 10, 'Proelus on Euclid,' 2 vols. 4to., 17H2; 



II, 'Two Orations of the Emperor Julian to the So\> 

 Sun and to the Mother of the Gods,' 8vo., 1793 ; 1 2. 

 sanias' Description of Greece,' 3 vols. 8vo., 171)4 : for this 

 translation, made in such haste that Mr. Ta\ lor nearly lost 

 the use of his right hand from continued exeition, he 

 received 181. The work was in such demand that it sold 

 for a high price, and a second edition wa- printed in iN'Jl 

 without consulting the translator, who heard of it acci- 

 dentally, when it was too late to correct it ; a slight com- 

 pensation was made to him, and he added some n 



tins is an illustration of the remarks already made ; a work 

 like this should not have been lelt to a necessitous writer : 



13, l-'i\e books of Plotinus, ' On Felicity : on the Nature 

 and Origin of Evil : on Providence ; on Nature, Contem- 

 plation, and the One : on the Descent of the Soul,' 8\o.. 



IT'.M : ll. ' Cupid and Psyche,' from -... 17U~>: 



I.".. Metaphysics of Aristotle,' 4to.. 1801; 1C. II, 



'. Lexicon,' edited. 4to., Is<3: 17. -The' Di- 



Uons of Maximus Tyriuv 2 vol-. I2rao., l*ui : is. -An 

 Answer to Dr. Gillies' .Supplement to 1): !t-i- 



of the Works of Aristotle. 8vo., isill ; III, 'The \\ 

 of Plato,' 5 vols. 4to., IS(>4 : includiiTg reprint-, of the 

 parts previously translated, and many commentaries taken 

 of which have since been printed in tin- 

 original language: -Jii. -'I 



mop] >i are printed w'ith Sir. Bridgcman'* trans- 



lations. 8u>.. 1804 ; 21, ' Miscellanies in Prose and \ 

 I2mo.. I8U-,, 2nd ed. 1*211: 22. 'Cofll 

 21. -The Kmperor Julian's Atguinent- taken from ' 

 with Extract- fnun In ' to the I 'liris- 



tiaiis,'N\o.. 1809; 21. 'The \Vorks of Aristotle,' i( vols. 

 4to., 1812, with copious extracts from the antient com- 

 mentators, to which are added a dissertation on the 

 philosophy of Aristotle, and a treatise on the elements of 



