I was not aware of my old friend's illness, or I should certainly have written to him, to express that unabated regard which I have felt for him eight-and-thirty years, and that hope which I shall ever feel, that we may meet in the higher state of existence. I have known very few who equalled him in talents—none who had a kinder heart; and there never lived a more dutiful son, or a sincerer friend.
Taylor's many books are now all forgotten. His translation of Bürger's Lenore one now only recalls by its effect upon Scott; his translation of Lessing's Nathan the Wise has been superseded. His voluminous Historic Survey of German Poetry only lives through Carlyle's severe review in the Edinburgh Review[37] against the many strictures in which Taylor's biographer attempts to defend him. Taylor had none of Carlyle's inspiration. Not a line of his work survives in print in our day, but it was no small thing to have been the friend and correspondent of Southey, whose figure in literary history looms larger now than it did when Emerson asked contemptuously, 'Who's Southey?'; and to have been the wise mentor of George Borrow is in itself to be no small thing in the record of letters. There is a considerable correspondence between Taylor and Sir Richard Phillips in Robberds's Memoir, and Phillips seemed always anxious to secure articles from Taylor for the Monthly, and even books for his publishing-house. Hence the introduction from Taylor that Borrow carried to London might have been most effective if Phillips had had any use for poor and impracticable would-be authors.
FOOTNOTES:
[35] Three Generations of Englishwomen, by Janet Ross, vol. i, p. 3.
[36] A Memoir of the Life and Writings of William Taylor of Norwich: Containing his Correspondence of many years with the late Robert Southey, Esquire, and Original Letters from Sir Walter Scott and other Eminent Literary Men. Compiled and edited by J. W. Robberds of Norwich, 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1843.
[37] Reprinted in Carlyle's Miscellanies.