TAYLOR TELFORD. 



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senting minister ; but troubles arising from an i 

 early marriage, disgusting him with his tutor arid 

 his vocation, be became an assistant at a boarding 

 school, and for many years endured patiently the 

 pressure of incessant toil and narrow circumstances. 

 The love of mysticism and metaphysical subtility, 

 by which he was ever distinguished, was first dis. 

 played in an essay on " A new Method for Reason- 

 ing in Geometry." The metaphysical view of 

 mathematics which he adopted, led him to the 

 study of the old Greek philosophers. He began 

 with Aristotle, and proceeded to Flato, whose 

 sublime speculations at once rivetted his affections. 

 While engaged in the study of the academic philo- 

 sophy, he accidentally met with the works of Plo- 

 tinus, and read them, as he himself informs us, 

 " with an insatiable avidity and the most rapturous 

 delight, notwithstanding the obscurity of that 

 author's diction, and the profundity of his concep- 

 tions." He next studied the commentaries of 

 Proclus, and read them through thrice a task, it 

 is thought, never performed by any other man. 

 The generous patronage of Messrs W. and G. 

 Meredith enabled him to publish the " Orphic 

 Hymns," and some other Platonic fragments. He 

 next translated "Plotinus on the Beautiful," a 

 work of singular obscurity ; and Proclus's "Com- 

 mentary on Euclid," in which there is much 

 ingenious mathematical research, mingled with the 

 wildest speculations of the Alexandrian school. 

 These were followed by translations of the Pla- 

 tonic Sallust; of the Pythagoric Sentences; some 

 Hymns of Proclus ; two Orations of the Emperor 

 Julian ; and five books of Plotinus, with very 

 copious notes and illustrations. The mere titles 

 ot these translations will suggest, what a closer 

 examination of them would prove, that Mr Taylor 

 was not so much a Platonist as a Neo-Platonician ; 

 that he followed less the pure doctrines of the 

 academy, than their extension by the school of 

 Alexandria and the Sophists. The compound of 

 all eastern and western metaphysics preached by 

 the later Platonicians, patronised by the emperor 

 Julian, and advocated by the Sophists, as a rival 

 to Christianity, is really the Platonic system de- 

 veloped by Mr Taylor. His admiration of these 

 vvriters was unbounded; and his enthusiasm was 

 not at all abated by finding himself alone in his 

 worship. The most laborious of Mr Taylor's 

 tasks was a translation of Pausanias, in three vol- 

 umes, for which he received only sixty pounds ! 

 It must, however, be said, that his notes illustrate 

 neither the topography nor the history of this 

 valuable description of ancient Greece, but are 

 devoted to mystical speculations on the recondite 

 meaning of ancient fables, the doctrine of ideas, 

 &c., which are as much out of place as if they had 

 been appended to Paterson's Book of Roads. 

 His greatest works, complete translations of Plato 

 and Aristotle, are copiously illustrated from the 

 ancient commentators, and will be found a rich 

 storehouse of information for those who desire to 

 study the beautiful philosophy of ancient Greece. 

 The publication of these works was also due to 

 the liberality of the Messrs Meredith. 



Through the exertions of his friends, Mr Taylor 

 was appointed assistant secretary to the society of 

 arts ; his salary, and an annuity of j100 per annum, 

 generously settled upon him by his friend Mr W. 

 Meredith, secured him a competence suited to his 

 limited desires. Ho died at his house, Walworth, 

 on the 1st Nov. 1835. His conversation is said 



to have abounded in speculation, and to have been 

 earnestly sought by those who love to wander 

 through the magnificent mazes of metaphysics. 



TELFORD, THOMAS, a highly distinguished 

 civil engineer, was born in the year 1757, in the 

 pastoral valley of Eskdale, a district in the county 

 of Dumfries. His parents occupied a station in 

 the humble walks of life, which, however, they 

 tilled with becoming respectability. His education 

 was limited, both in duration and extent. The 

 parochial school of Westerkirk was his only semi- 

 nary, and here nothing beyond the simple elements 

 of learning was to be acquired. At the age of 

 fourteen, he was bound apprentice to an emi- 

 nent builder, in the county that gave him birth ; 

 and, having obtained a competent knowledge of 

 his business, on the expiration of his term he for 

 some years practised the same profession in his 

 native distiict. The southern counties of Scot- 

 land, however, at that time furnished but little en- 

 couragement for talent ; and, as a natural conse- 

 quence, industry found but a scanty reward. Con- 

 vinced of these facts, he resolved to leave his 

 native abode, and, accordingly, he repaired to 

 Edinburgh, where he continued, with unremitting 

 application, to study the principles of architecture, 

 agreeably to the rule of science. Here he remained 

 until the year 1782, when, having made a consid- 

 erable proficiency, he left the Scottish for the 

 British metropolis, and came to London under the 

 patronage of the late Sir William Pulteney (origi- 

 nally Johnstone) and the family of Pasley, who 

 were natives of the parish of Westerkirk. 



The first public employment in which he was 

 engaged was that of superintending some works 

 belonging to government in Portsmouth dock-yard. 

 The duties of this undertaking were discharged 

 with so much fidelity and care as to give complete 

 satisfaction to the commissioners, and to insure the 

 future exercise of his talents and services. Hence, 

 in 1787, he was appointed surveyor of the public 

 works in the rich and extensive county of Salop ; 

 arid this situation he retained to his death. 



In 1790 he was employed by the British Fishery 

 society to inspect the harbours at their several sta- 

 tions, and to devise a plan for an extensive esta- 

 blishment at Wick in the county of Caithness. 

 This work was satisfactorily accomplished, and it 

 has been the chief centre of the herring fishery 

 on that coast, under the name of Pulteney Town. 



During the same year, 1790, an extensive inland 

 navigation, in length about one hundred miles, 

 called the Ellesmere canal, was confided to his 

 general management. This, in its track along the 

 base of the Welsh hills, passes over the aqueducts 

 of Pont y Cysylte and Chirk. The former, one 

 thousand feet long, and one hundred and twenty- 

 eight feet high, and the latter, six hundred feet 

 long, and seventy feet high, were constructed ac- 

 cording to his plans, and under his direction. 



In the years 1803 and 1804 the parliamentary 

 commissioners for making roads and building 

 bridges in the Highlands of Scotland, and also for 

 making the Caledonian canal, appointed Mr Tel- 

 ford their engineer. Under the former board, 

 eleven hundred bridges, two of one hundred and 

 fifty feet span, were built, and eight hundred and 

 sixty miles of new road were made ; and under the 

 latter board the Caledonian canal, of unusually 

 large dimensions, was constructed. 



Under the road commissioners, on the Glasgow, 

 Carlisle, and Lanarkshire roads, thirty bridges, one 



