European successors had corrupted; and he rejected the common opinion of an essential antagonism between the Platonic and Peripatetic philosophies, only to resuscitate the forced and fanciful syncretism of the ancient commentators. His style, formed on the Johnsonian model, retained its stiffness to the last. But with an ardour which neither neglect nor contempt could damp, he plodded laboriously on until he had achieved a work never so much as contemplated in its entirety by any of his predecessors. Widely read in America, his works had never much vogue in England, where his frank avowal of philosophic polytheism created a strong feeling against him. He was, however, patronised by the Duke of Norfolk [see Howard, Henry Charles, thirteenth Duke of Norfolk], who subscribed for the entire impression of his Plato, and locked the bulk of it up in his library; and when he visited Oxford in the summer of 1802 he met with a hearty welcome from the dons, though he was hardly reconciled to the ‘monkish gloom’ and ‘barbaric towers and spires’ of the place by the good cheer of New College and the free use of the Bodleian Library (cf. his letter, dated 20 June 1802, in The Antiquary, July 1888). He figures as the half-crazy enthusiast in Isaac D'Israeli's novel ‘Vaurien,’ as ‘the modern Pletho’ in the same author's ‘Curiosities of Literature’ (i. 316), and as ‘England's gentile priest’ in Mathias's ‘Pursuits of Literature’ (iii. 31–2). He died at Walworth on 1 Nov. 1835, and was buried (6 Nov.) in the graveyard (since turned into a recreation-ground) of St. Mary's, Newington Butts.
Taylor was twice married. By his first wife, Mary Morton (d. 1 April 1809), he had, with two daughters, four sons, of whom the youngest, Thomas Proclus Taylor, wrote for the stage (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ix. 194). His second wife, by whom also he had issue, died on 25 April 1823 (Gent. Mag. 1823, i. 571). A few fragments of Taylor's correspondence are collected in ‘The Platonist’ (Orange, N. J.), April–May 1884. His portrait, by Evans, is in the National Portrait Gallery; another, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, belonged to his patron, William Meredith.
Taylor's translations, dissertations, and miscellanies, all of which, when not otherwise described, appeared at London, are as follows:
I. TRANSLATIONS.—Orphic Hymns: ‘The Mystical Initiations or Hymns of Orpheus, with a preliminary Dissertation on the Life and Theology of Orpheus,’ 1787, 12mo; reprinted as ‘The Hymns,’ &c., 1792, 8vo; new and enlarged edition, entitled ‘The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus, demonstrated to be the Invocations which were used in the Eleusinian Mysteries,’ Chiswick, 1824, 8vo; reprinted, London, 1896. Plotinus: 1. ‘Concerning the Beautiful, Ennead I. vi.,’ 1787, 8vo. 2. ‘Five Books, viz. On Felicity; on the Nature and Origin of Evil; on Providence; on Nature, Contemplation, and the One; and on the Descent of the Soul. With an Introduction,’ 1794, 8vo. 3. ‘Select Works, and Extracts from the Treatise of Synesius on Providence. With an Introduction containing the substance of Porphyry's Life of Plotinus,’ 1817, 8vo; reprinted in Bohn's ‘Philosophical Library,’ 1895. 4. ‘On Suicide, to which is added an Extract from the Harl. MS. of the Scholia of Olympiodorus on the Phædo of Plato respecting Suicide. Two Books on Truly Existing Being, and Extracts from his Treatise on the manner in which the multitude of ideas subsists, and concerning the Good, with additional Notes from Porphyry and Proclus,’ 1834, 8vo. Proclus: 1. ‘On the First Book of Euclid's Elements, and his Life by Marinus. With a preliminary Dissertation on the Platonic Doctrine of Ideas. To which are added A History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology by the later Platonists,’ 1788–9, 3 vols. 8vo. 2. ‘On the Theology of Plato,’ 1816, 2 vols. 4to. 3. ‘On the Timæus of Plato,’ 1820, 2 vols. 4to. 4. ‘Fragments,’ 1825, 8vo. 5. ‘Two Treatises, the former consisting of ten Doubts concerning Providence, and a Solution of those Doubts, and the latter containing a Development of the Nature of Evil,’ 1833, 8vo. Plato: 1. ‘Phædrus,’ 1792, 4to. 2. ‘Cratylus, Phædo, Parmenides, and Timæus,’ 1793, 8vo. 3. ‘Works, viz. his fifty-five Dialogues and twelve Epistles,’ 1804, 5 vols. 8vo [see Sydenham, Floyer]. Aristotle: 1. ‘Metaphysics, to which is added a Dissertation on Nullities and Diverging Series,’ 1801, 4to. 2. ‘History of Animals and Treatise on Physiognomy,’ 1809, 4to. 3. ‘Works; with copious Elucidations from the best of his Greek Commentators,’ 1806–12, 9 vols. 4to. 4. ‘Rhetoric, Poetic, and Nicomachean Ethics,’ 1818, 2 vols. 8vo; 3rd edit. without the Ethics, 1821, 8vo. Sallust: ‘On the Gods and the World, and the Pythagoric Sentences of Demophilus, and Five Hymns by Proclus; to which are added Five Hymns by the translator,’ 1793, 8vo; reprint of the ‘Pythagoric Sentences’ in Bridgman's Translations from the Greek, 1804. Julian (the emperor): 1. ‘Two Orations, one to the Sovereign Sun, and the other to the Mother of the Gods; with Notes and a copious Introduction,’ 1793, 8vo. 2. ‘Arguments
