Thomas Taylor, the English Platonist

The Shrine of Wisdom · Buddhas and Initiates Series · 22 pages

An account of Thomas Taylor and his great work, issued by The Shrine of Wisdom. Taylor's translations of Plato, Aristotle, Iamblichus, Porphyry and Proclus are the reason he appears so often in this section — four of the documents listed here are his renderings — and this file is the biographical companion to them, on the man who made the Neoplatonists available in English at a time when almost no one else would.

The tone is set by the two pieces at the head of the file. The first is a verse tribute signed Basilius, addressing Taylor as illustrious master of Platonic lore whose living page mirrors Plato's soul in a dark age, and calling him the builder of our Order and the hierophant who endows his little ones with light. The second is in Taylor's own voice, and it is a call to arms rather than a meditation: that impetuous ignorance is thundering at the bulwarks of philosophy and her sacred retreats are in danger of being demolished through feeble resistance — so rise, and the victory will be ours, for the foe is numerous but at the same time feeble against the weapons of truth in the hands of a vigorous union.

Read the full text (PDF, 1.0 MB, 22 pages)