James Taylor

“ Young Salt Lake City Children. Name. When Born. Where Born. When Died. Where died. Father's Name Mother's Name George John Taylor Jan. 31, 1834 Near Toronto, Canada John Taylor Leonora Taylor Mary Ann Taylor Jan. 23, 1836 Toronto, Canada Dec. 9, 1890 San Francisco do do Joseph James Taylor June 8, 1838 Near Indianapolis, Ind. do do Leonora Agnes Taylor June 1, 1842 Nauvoo, Ills. Sep. 10, 1843 Nauvoo, Ills. do do Josephine Taylor March 15, 1846 Nauvoo, Ills. do Elizabeth Taylor Thomas Edward Taylor Nov. 7, 1849 Salt Lake City, Utah do do Arthur Bruce Taylor Oct. ”

“ The watermen, who twenty years before had exercised the influence of their patron, the Lord Admiral, to induce the Privy Council to revoke an inhibition on the Bankside houses, sent up a bitter cry of protest. John Taylor, the ‘water-poet’, whom they chose as their spokesman, tells the story. [1056] [371] A petition to the King was prepared, to the effect that no play-house might be permitted ‘in London or in Middlesex, within four miles of the City on that side of the Thames’, and with this Taylor pursued James to Theobalds, Newmarket, and Royston. ”

“ James Medland Taylor, architect, born 1834; Rosa; Henry Taylor, architect and author, born in 1837; Catherine; Jessie, who married Thomas Wilson; and Euphemia—all born at Stanford Rivers.
Though he joined the Anglican communion at an early stage in his career, Taylor always remained on the best terms with his old friends among the dissenters. Some regarded him as the greatest English lay theologian since Coleridge, and many with greater justice as the successor in the vale of Ongar to associations of piety and lofty religious idealism such as hallowed Bemerton or Olney. ”

“ Sir James Stephen, in his remarkable essay upon ‘The Historian of Enthusiasm,’ thought that he detected the seeds of a decay of Taylor's influence in his ineradicable tendency to superfine writing and in the mutually destructive effect of so much teaching and so much eloquence; yet he concludes that Taylor's books exhibit a character both moral and intellectual, from the study of which the reader can hardly fail to rise a wiser and a better man.
Taylor was always much interested in mechanical devices and inventions, and he spent many hours in the workshop that he fitted up at Stanford Rivers. ”

“ Taylor actively promoted the emancipation of the slaves in 1833, and became an intimate ally of Sir James Stephen, then counsel to the Colonial Office, afterwards under-secretary, by whom the Act of Emancipation was principally framed. His duties at the Colonial Office were soon afterwards lightened by the appointment of James Spedding, with whom he began a friendship that lasted till the end of his life. ”

“ James Virtue, who was a fine oar and President of the London Rowing Club, was one of the most cheerful men one could wish to meet; and as hostess, his wife, who, I am happy to say, is still living, was equally delightful. His brother William Virtue afterwards saved my life—but that is anticipating events somewhat.
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Taylor were another interesting and talented couple who were friends of my parents. Tom Taylor was the art critic of the Times, and at one time editor of Punch. ”

“ Politics were the order of the day; and they soon engaged the attention of young Taylor. I heard many years ago, that when he came to the bar, and some time afterwards, he sided with his college mates Tazewell, Randolph, Cabell, Thompson, and James Barbour, and hailed with rapture the progress of the French revolution ”

“ Nor did Taylor rest there, for he presented a [Pg 280] petition to James I., which was submitted to Sir Francis Bacon and other commissioners, to compel all play-houses to stand on the Bankside, so as to give more work to watermen. In the Civil War, Taylor went to Oxford and wrote ballads for the king. On his return to London, he settled in Long Acre with a mourning crown for a sign; [511] but the Puritans resenting this emblem, he had his own portrait painted instead with this motto—
“There’s many a head stands for a sign:
Then, gentle reader, why not mine?” ”

“ Gid opened the door.
"Why, here's Jim Taylor, as wet as a drowned bear. Come in."
Sitting by the fire was the Major, with his coat off and his shirt collar unbuttoned.
"Why, James," said he, "you are making the rounds to-night. Sit down here and dry yourself. And look at you, mud up to your knees. Why do you tramp about this way? Why don't you ride?"
"Too heavy," the giant answered.
"Then, I gad," Gid replied, dragging his bench from against the wall and sitting down upon it, "I know I'd ride. Do men ride for their own comfort or for the horse's? ”

“ Adler, a German scholar, to whom Duyckinck introduced me. He is author of a formidable lexicon (German or English) ; in compiling which he almost ruined his health. He was almost crazy, he tells me, for a time. He is full of the German metaphysics and discourses of Kant, Swedenborg, etc. He has been my principal companion thus far. There is also a Mr. Taylor among the passengers, cousin of James Bayard Taylor, the pedestrian traveller. There is a Scotch artist on board, a painter, with a most unpoetical looking child, a young-one all cheeks and forehead, the former preponderating. ”

“ Taylor, and few have written better. Those of us who know how he owed nothing to chance, how methodical and painstaking he was, how he conquered difficulties which would have dismayed a weaker man, are in a position to judge of his merits, and to accord to him words of praise, little as he needs them, which have a specific meaning.”
James T. Fields, in the tributes published in the “Tribune,” gave this sketch of the acquaintance and friendship existing between Mr. Taylor and himself:—
“The death of a man like Bayard Taylor, awakens universal sorrow. ”

“ As he tossed the empty bracelet back on the table he heard a sound behind him and turned just in time to see the woman in the corner slip to the floor in a dead faint.
"Now that we've got her," inquired Madelaine James, "what'll we do with her?"
"Take off the handcuffs, leave the room, and close the door," directed Taylor. "She'll hardly care to make any fuss when she comes to, and the fact that she is unconscious gives us an excellent opportunity for departing without a scene." ”

“ From Adam, Master John and Master James Acmootye went to the town of Dunbar with me, [Pg 61] where ten Scottish pints of wine were consumed, and brought to nothing for a farewell: there at Master James Baylies house I took leave, and Master James Acmootye coming for England, said, that if I would ride with, that neither I nor my horse should want betwixt that place and London. Now I having no money nor means for travel, began at once to examine my manners and my want: at last my want persuaded my manners to accept of this worthy gentleman's undeserved courtesy. ”

“ In a private letter to the editor, Sir James Stephen describes Taylor “as a very considerable man, with but small inventive but very great diffusive p. 17powers, possessing a considerable mastery of language, but very apt to be over-mastered by it—too fine a writer to write very well; too fastidious a censor to judge men and things equitably; too much afraid of falling into cant and vulgarity to rise to freedom and ease ”

“ The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will. And yet how foolish, as well as how wrong, this is! Do we fancy that we are wiser than He? or that our love for ourselves is more tender and strong than His? or that we know ourselves better than He does? How our distrust must grieve and wound afresh the tender heart of Him who was for us the Man of Sorrows! What would be the feelings of an earthly bridegroom if he discovered that his bride-elect was dreading to marry him, lest, when he had the power, he should render her life insupportable? ”

“ He wants our sympathy; He wants the gifts and offerings that are prompted by love. Shall He look to us in vain? Our David still thirsts, not for the waters of the well of Bethlehem, but for the souls for which He died. ”

“ Himself the great Source of all that is noble and true, of all that ever has been loving and trust-worthy—each beautiful trait of each beautiful character is but the dim reflection of some ray of His own great perfection. ”

“ His book is filled with similar denunciations of abuses; in which he is followed by other satirists. They appear to have produced little effect in the way of reformation; for in the days of James I, John Taylor, the Water poet, similarly laments the wastefulness of those who—
261 It is not unusual to find in inventories of this era, the household effects rated at much less than the wearing apparel, of the person whose property is thus valued. ”

“ We have often walked in the fields in the early morning, and have noticed how the rising sun has turned each dewdrop into a glittering gem; one ray of its own bright light makes a little sun of each of the million drops that hang from the pendent leaflets and sparkle everywhere. ”

“ Upright as the palm, victorious, and evermore fruitful as she grows heavenward; gentle and tender as the Vine, self-forgetful and self-sacrificing, not merely bearing fruit in spite of adversity, but bearing her richest fruits through it;—feasting on her Beloved, as she rests beneath His shade, and thereby partaking of His fragrance;—what has grace not done for her! And what must be her joy in finding, ever more fully, the satisfaction of the glorious Bridegroom in the lowly wild flower He has made His bride, and beautified with His own graces and virtues! ”

“ Were we always so to live, how beautiful Christian life would become! how much more worthy a witness we should bear to the world of Him whose witnesses we are! May the life we are living be characterised by the growth in grace which will glorify GOD; and may tell-tale faces, and glad hearts, and loving service be to each one of us as "a ribband of blue," reflecting the very hue of heaven, and reminding ourselves and one another of our privileges to "remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them." ”

“ Blue is the colour of heaven. The beautiful waters of the sea reflect it, and are as blue as the cloudless sky. When the clouds come between, then, and then only, is the deep blue lost. But it is the will of GOD that there should never be a cloud between His people and Himself; and that, as the Israelite of old, wherever he went, carried the ribband of blue, so His people to-day should manifest a heavenly spirit and temper wherever they go; and should, like Moses, in their very countenances bear witness to the glory and beauty of the GOD whom they love and serve. ”

“ We have already found the explanation of the fairness of the bride in her reflecting like a mirror the beauty of the Bridegroom. Well may He with satisfaction describe her beauty while she is thus occupied with Himself! The lips that speak only of Him are like a thread of scarlet; the mouth or speech which has no word of self, or for self, is comely in His sight. [41]
How sweet His words of appreciation and commendation were to the bride we can well imagine; but her joy was too deep for expression; she was silent in her love. ”

“ Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
Thou art a fountain of gardens,
A well of living waters,
And flowing streams from Lebanon.
Engaged with the Bridegroom in seeking to rescue the perishing, the utterances of her lips are to Him as honey and the honeycomb; and figure is piled upon figure to express His satisfaction and joy. She is a garden full of precious fruits and delightful perfumes, but a garden enclosed; the fruit she bears may bring blessing to many, but the garden is for Himself alone; she is a fountain, but a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. ”

“ Before leaving the junk I told the captain and those on board that I was now unable to help myself; that I [90] had not strength to walk to Kia-hing Fu, and having been disappointed in getting a passage to-day, I should no longer have sufficient means to take me there by letter-boat, which was an expensive mode of travelling ”

“ When we think of his birth, training, and surroundings—the child of the plantation and the graduate of the forecastle—and contrast this with his peculiar powers, his strange career, and above all in rarity his wonderful world-wide mission, it is not too much to say that Father Taylor is without a parallel in American history. “An impulsive, untrained, and erratic genius;” there was a fixed purpose and a continuity of effort, such as is seen in few lives. If extravagant in speech and inconsistent in views, his intensity, vividness, and realism, make all sound like plain common-sense. ”

“ In 1753 he was instituted to the rectory of Ovington, Hampshire, resigning Wheatfield. In 1755 he was instituted to the rectory of Crawley, Hampshire, which he held with Portsmouth, resigning Ovington. Like his father, he was noted as a wit and a writer of humorous epigram. His graceful verses on wedlock, ‘Paradise Regain'd,’ are in Dodsley's ‘Collection’ (1758, vi. 126) .
Taylor was among the last of the Anglican divines of the Clarkean school; but he outran his master, openly espousing the Apollinarian heresy. ”

“ His philology is helpless word-play. The attraction of his discourses was in his jocose manner; they exhibit no real humour, but his taunts are smart. His drollery, though of a low type, is never impure.
Released from gaol in 1833, Taylor retired from public view. He married an elderly lady of property; the marriage was a happy one, but it exposed Taylor to an action for breach of promise on the part of Miss Richards, to whom a jury awarded 250l. To escape paying this, Taylor removed to France, practising as a surgeon at Tours, where he died in September 1844. ”