TAYLOR, Thomas, generally known as the Platonist, was born in London on the 15th of May 1758. After spending some time at St Paul's school, he was removed to Sheerness, where he spent several years with a relation. A premature marriage and pecuniary difficulties compelled him to relinquish his design of prosecuting his studies for the church. He became a clerk to a banking-house, and subsequently assistant-secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce. He devoted all his spare time to the study of Greek literature, and to the revival and elucidation of the Platonic philosophy. Taylor succeeded in obtaining the patronage of the Duke of Norfolk and a Mr Meredith, a retired tradesman, who published his translations of Plato, Aristotle, and other distinguished Greek writers. His writings number in all thirty-eight distinct works; and some of them, such as the Plato and Aristotle, consist of five and nine volumes respectively. A detailed list of Taylor's writings may be seen in the English Cyclopædia. Meredith settled on him a pension of £100 a year, and he contrived to extend his income to £200. On this paltry pittance he lived and worked until his end came in 1835. Taylor is said to have been a man of great candour, and a delightful companion.