APPENDIX I.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF JOHN TAYLOR OF "THE GREAT PYRAMID."
BY MRS. PIAZZI SMYTH.
The subject of this brief sketch was born at East Retford, in the county of Notts, on the 31st of July, 1781, and died on the 5th of July, 1864, at his residence in Kensington, London.
Had he lived a few days longer he would have completed his eighty-third year, in full possession of all his faculties, with the exception of his eyesight, which became in the last two or three years of his life so painfully defective that he could scarcely see the characters he was tracing. Under these latter circumstances he could study but little; yet so clear was his memory still, that he could refer with ease to his favourite volumes, or to his commonplace-books, and indicate precisely the page where might be found the passage he wished or required to be read to him.
From his earliest years order, precision, exactness, and fact were the ruling features of his mind and his actions. Of him it may be truly said, he was one of Nature's gentlemen; and in later years became ennobled by Divine Grace! In appearance he was extremely prepossessing, with a countenance you felt you could not only like, but trust. His bearing was benign and dignified, yet simple, combined with a certain amount of 638calm reserve, giving one the idea of his confidence and friendship being worth acquiring and keeping. He was a thoroughly religious man, without any pretence, though active in every good work.
Like all great and good men, John Taylor was throughout life a devout worshipper of truth. To the promotion of the truth, in politics, in science, and, more particularly during the latter part of his life, in religion, he devoted all he had, his time, his mind, and almost whatever portion of worldly means he possessed.
He fought through life a losing battle, and was denied that fame which was justly his due. But as his conduct proceeded from a disinterested wish to establish principles which he held to be most conducive to the welfare of the nation, he never lost heart; and want of success left him cheerful and happy in the consciousness of duty performed.
His genius and worth endeared him to all who had the privilege of knowing him, and there may be those still alive who could testify to his large-hearted goodness—his house, his hand, and his heart were always open, especially for the helpless. Many an aspiring poet submitted to him his verses, many a timid politician his projects, and many a young divine his theological speculations; and none went away disappointed. On some of his friends fortune had turned her back, but John Taylor never followed her example. He was a friend “born for adversity,” and if any change was made by him, it was to show them more kindness and consideration; for his hands never slacked in works of charity, nor was he ever tempted, or if tempted he never yielded, to forsake the ways of a God-fearing, honest man.
Of no specially intense genius, yet John Taylor so used and cultivated his talents that he made himself master to some extent of most of the sciences of his day; and 639became a scholar, philologist, linguist, mathematician, poet, political economist, and of no mean order in all these branches of knowledge. With all his erudition, he was far too modest ever to obtrude his learning. Extensive and varied as was his information, clear and accurate as he was with his pen, those who knew him only as a writer knew but half the man. It was in conversation he shone the most. His manner was easy and playful, while the stores of his information were always at the service of those who sought it.
Such was John Taylor, the son of the Retford bookseller, to whom he was bound apprentice at the age of fourteen, having been sent in very early life to the Grammar School at Retford, where he got well grounded in Latin, Greek, and elementary mathematics, which placed him at great advantage with reference to his many varied studies in after-years; indeed he never could have then piled acquirement upon acquirement as he did, without the good foundation having been laid in youth; this joined to indomitable industry and imperturbable method, with ceaseless self-culture through a long quiet life, made John Taylor what he was, a man of deep, varied, and extensive information.
At the expiration of his apprenticeship with his father, he determined to try his fortune in London; and happily obtained a situation in the then great house of Lackington in Finsbury Square, the greatest publishing house of that day, and called the “Temple of the Muses.” Here he met, and formed a friendship with a young man of kindred tastes with his own, of the name of Hessey. From Lackington’s, John Taylor went to Vernor and Hood’s, another great publishing establishment. Here he made the acquaintance of the well-known Tom Hood, who afterwards became his sub-editor of the London Magazine.
When Mr. Hessey had finished his time at 640Lackington’s, he and Mr. Taylor set up in business together at 93, Fleet Street; but on the establishment of the London University, Taylor being appointed their publisher, he removed to 30, Gower Street, where he took up his residence. At both these places of abode his hospitable table and his “publishers’ dinners” formed the centre of a large circle of literary friends: not the wealthy and the great alone, but talent and genius were ever welcome, for Taylor’s heart and hand were always open to help the needy. Here it was that John Clare, the poor rustic Northamptonshire poet, had his mental gifts first acknowledged, was first received and treated as an equal, and introduced to several men of rank and talent, including the late Lord Radstock. This introduction to Lord Radstock proved the beginning of a friendship which lasted for years and spread its influence over Clare’s whole life. Poor Clare was a difficult person to manage or serve, nevertheless John Taylor remained to the last a judicious friend, adviser, and helper. These two men, each so remarkable in his own special way, died within a few weeks of each other: Clare on the 25th of May, 1864, and John Taylor on the 5th of July, 1864. Their latest words had a resemblance, Clare saying, “I want to go home;” and Taylor, “I want to lie down;” and thus each spirit passed from time to eternity. The mortal remains both of the helped and the helper were taken to their native counties—Clare to Helpston, in Northamptonshire, and John Taylor to Gamston, in Notts, of which parish his old and valued friend the Rev. John Twells was then Rector. Another poet of higher strain than Clare, was also indebted for his first encouragement to John Taylor. This was John Keats, the author of “Endymion,” who found in him not merely an appreciative publisher but also a sympathizing friend.
641Mr. Taylor’s life was a busy one. Not only had he the daily claims of his shop to attend to, but a large publication business was added to it; he being moreover his own reader, and superintending entirely that department. During this period, his commonplace-books show the vast range of his various inquiries. He had studied old English (Anglo-Saxon), Welsh, French, and Italian; he had also turned his attention to astronomy, not in the popular sense, but as a working practical mathematician. His varied extracts show the calibre as well as the minuteness of Mr. Taylor’s studies, and how he trained himself by his extreme attention to details, which resulted in giving remarkable strength and precision to his future literary efforts. In 1813 Mr. Taylor first became an author, when he printed a pamphlet entitled “The Discovery of Junius,” which was afterwards enlarged into a volume, under the name of “Junius identified with an Eminent Living Character.” This was Sir Philip Francis, and the world seems to have since then held that the identification was decidedly correct. In 1821 Mr. Taylor became editor of the London Magazine, and held that office until 1825, during which period he wrote much fugitive poetry, essays, and other papers, which have not been collected.
Believing that the passing of the late Sir R. Peel’s Currency Bill would prove a fatal era to the nation, he published the first of many pamphlets on financial subjects in 1819, under the title of “The Restoration of National Prosperity shown to be immediately practicable;” and from that time to the end of his life he ceased not in one form or other to urge his views on the subject of the currency upon the attention of the public. But his interest in these financial matters had not the usual effect of such topics in narrowing his thoughts in other fields of investigation. He was throughout life a 642student of Holy Scripture, and devoted much time and labour in its examination, as his works, “The Emphatic New Testament,” 1854, and “Light shed on Scripture Truth,” 1864, abundantly testify. He was likewise a careful student of prophecy, both fulfilled and unfulfilled, and he displayed great research and ingenuity in a work published in 1844, in which he endeavoured to find in “Wealth” the name and number of the beast of the “Apocalypse.”
There was still another point on which he bestowed much labour, viz.: the tracing of the measures of length and of content that are in use in this country to the dimensions of the Great Pyramid of Jeezeh and of the Coffer therein. The investigation of this subject led him to collect a mass of information which he published under the title of “The Great Pyramid; Why was it built? Who built it?” To this he afterwards added a supplement called, “The Battle of the Standards.” The first work was published in 1859, the latter in 1863. The preparation for these two works had occupied Mr. Taylor’s time and mind for thirty years of his life; and in his old age he gave to the world the remarkable results of this long and laborious work of constant thought and calculation.
The Great Pyramid of Egypt, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the only one of them which is still in existence, has occupied the thoughts of men in all ages; and many have been the speculations thereon. But it was given to John Taylor, to be the first to see, and then to make known to mankind, some of the deep and important truths really hidden for so many ages in that wonderful monument.
Soon after their publication as above, in his ever-remarkable work, “The Great Pyramid; Why was it built?” &c., a copy was sent by a mutual friend to 643Piazzi Smyth, in Edinburgh. He, fancying it applied more to architecture than to his own professional line of occupation, astronomy, forwarded the book to the Architectural Institute of Edinburgh, with a request that they would look into it and report accordingly. This, however, they seem to have totally failed to do; and, therefore, in 1863, when the same friend forwarded a copy of Mr. Taylor's second and smaller work, “The Battle of the Standards” (of linear measure), Piazzi Smyth immediately gave his mind conscientiously to it, and finding so much of well-digested matter, stated ably and fearlessly with regard to astronomically founded weights and measures and other kindred points, he at once procured a copy of “The Great Pyramid; Why was it built? &c.,” studied it carefully, tested some features crucially, and finally came to the conclusion that on the whole Mr. Taylor had well-grounded reasons for his bold assertion, which had frightened away half his friends, viz. that “The Great Pyramid” must have been erected under Divine instructions to its architect.
Very much of this most weighty conclusion depended on correct measurements; and as many of the Pyramid mensurations up to that date were lamentably conflicting, Piazzi Smyth, after fully examining again and again all Mr. Taylor's calculations, and trying in vain to clear up some of the difficulties, gave his first edition of “Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid” to the public, under a kind of protest against the insufficiency of most of the then known literary data. And from that time he felt that, if possible, he must eventually go to Egypt and remeasure the grand old monument—whether his investigations should affirm, or whether they should refute, the wonderful theory of the Great Pyramid as propounded by John Taylor. Early in the year 1864, in this view, began a correspondence between the aged author of the “Great Pyramid; Why was it built?” &c., 644and Piazzi Smyth; a correspondence too early terminated by the death of the good and wise old man. A few extracts from these letters will best tell the touching tale of his last days on earth.
EXTRACT FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF MR. TAYLOR TO PIAZZI SMYTH.
February 16, 1864.—‘‘ You have nothing to regret in the Architectural Institute having neglected my former book when you sent it to them. It was generally disregarded, but that gave me no great discomfort. Your handsome acknowledgment of the claim which ‘ The Battle of the Standards’ has on your attention is ample compensation, and I thank you most sincerely for it. I hope, as you say, that we shall not get rid of our hereditary measures in deference to any of the advocates of the French mètre.”’
February 24, 1864.—‘‘ The examples you have given me from the ‘International Bulletin’ of the Paris Observatory, touching the old-fashioned popular way in which, even in France, such men as Marshal Vaillant and M. Le Verrier speak of ‘Leagues’ cannot fail to be attended with the happiest effect, if they are quoted in the House of Commons against Mr. W. Ewart’s motion.
‘‘If you could give me a design for a better frontispiece I should be greatly obliged; and any other assistance you can favour me with I shall be grateful for. I am now unable to proceed any further with my inquiry in a direct line from myself.’’
February 29, 1864.—‘‘ Your diagram expresses all I could wish, and I will add nothing to it for fear of injuring it. Sir John Herschel pointed out the imperfection of that in my book: but I told him it was designed to represent the direction and extent of the 645telescopic passage in the pyramid—about 340 feet—which rendered a foreshortening of two of the sides necessary, and I would insert a better if he would give me one (this he has not done). Your first, second, and third developments are fitted to remove the difficulties, and I will get them engraved if you will favour me with them.
“What you say about the Russians coming south is a new view to me, and I will keep my eyes open to whatever light may arise in that direction. I will send you a little book which I wrote in 1844 on the ‘Number of the Beast,’ but it does not refer to Russia, because that country was beyond the bounds of the old Roman Empire.”
March 5, 1864.—“In all my inquiries I was for long baffled by the uncertainty of the (published) Measures (of the Great Pyramid) and was obliged to trust to some more than others. But I feel too poorly just now to put on paper my answers to your queries, and must beg you to excuse me till the beginning of next week, when I hope to be well enough to proceed.
“I like what you say of the Russians.”
March 7, 1864.—“I have spent many days in the British Museum, looking up whatever particulars I could meet with. Having satisfied my mind that the purpose of the builders (of the Great Pyramid) was not to erect a Tomb, the least suspicion of which would have led me to care nothing more about the Measures, I was therefore only solicitous to discover for what scientific uses that Great Pyramid could have been designed, and these opened themselves out very gradually.
“We want better intelligence of the Coffer, and other parts as well. I wish we had some one to go out to Egypt on whom we could depend; but in the meantime the general truth must suffice.”
March 15, 1864.—“Did I reply to your query about 646present location of Coffer? It is in the King’s Chamber of ‘The Great Pyramid.’
“Have you any intention of going there? I could almost hope you have such a thought; but do not expose yourself to any risk—you are wanted at home.
“Ewart has carried his bill in the Commons; but it will never become law, or, if it does, the people of this country will deserve, like the Jews, to lose both their name and nation in return for their ungrateful conduct.
“I am not yet quite well, but I trust to revive a little when the flowers do.
“It is many months since I went out of the house, either for a walk or a ride in the fresh air, and I feel very low. But the pleasure of hearing from or writing to you restores me more than anything else.”
March 23, 1864.—“The cause of truth is the great object. If in any way we are able, while on earth, ‘to vindicate the ways of God to man,’ we have not lived in vain. There is an immense deal of knowledge half hidden from our minds, which calm inquiry, if pursued in a right spirit, would open out.
“What you say of the Karnak cubit is perfectly true. The measure had its origin long before the name; and any attempt to account for the beginning of the measure is worthy of our best attention. When I have reflected on what you have said, I will try to write again.”
March 24, 1864.—“I cannot to-day say more, but it seems to me that an excellent means of superseding the mention of the cubit of Karnak is afforded in the sacred cubit of 25 inches.”
March 29, 1864.—“I had, as you suppose, mentioned in my book the inference deducible from the fact of a common origin of weights and measures among the most civilised nations of antiquity. It speaks irresistibly in favour of a common origin of all mankind from one source. I see no difference between the man who 647first gives utterance to such a remark and the man who approves it when he hears it uttered. I am a thinker, and I cannot do otherwise than act in my vocation. But it is necessary that many should approve before the thought can enter into the popular mind, and if that result ever takes place, I am only one among many who are entitled to any commendation; nay there is no room for commendation to any one, for all do but impart what has been given them. Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God gives the increase, if that ever takes place. I suppose that is the meaning of the Elders casting their crowns before the Throne in Revelation iv.
“Feeling a little better I have written a longer letter than usual.”
During the month of April many interesting little notes were received, all breathing the same calm, patient, reflective spirit, written, both in style of composition and calligraphy, with remarkable precision and clearness. Mr. Taylor's handwriting was an illustration of his character—every letter, every word, every sentence, all were absolutely correct and conscientiously formed up to the very last one written on the 25th of April.
On the morning of the 6th of May, a letter arrived from the Rev. Dr. Francis Hessey, the clergyman of the parish, and the friend of Mr. Taylor and son of his respected partner. He writes thus: “I feel you ought to know that our dear friend Mr. Taylor has been dangerously ill; indeed for some hours his life was despaired of, but he has rallied, and is now somewhat revived.” On the 11th of May, 1862, the same friend writes again: “Mr. Taylor is much better, but still sadly weak. He thanks you heartily for your appreciation of his work.”
May 27, 1864.—A letter came from a lady, the 648daughter of one of Mr. Taylor’s oldest and dearest friends, and she writes as follows: “As an old friend I have come up for a short time to assist in nursing Mr. Taylor, who is in such a weak state, he is not able to leave his bed.” On the 31st, this lady writes: “Mr. Taylor, was more pleased with your letter than I can well say. He is surprised at the points of contact between your mind and his.”
June 2, 1864.—“I can only again report the extreme delight your letter gave Mr. Taylor. He feels it the more that being now laid aside, and his work in a manner nearly done, others are being raised up who will not let the subject drop. On looking over your corrections he said, ‘Oh! how well he has done it, I could never have done it now. The service that good man has done me is incalculable, for he is helping me just where I failed. Oh! how thankful I feel for all these merciful dispensations.’”
June 28, 1864.—“In the midst of extreme physical weakness that wonderful mind tries to soar above its tabernacle, which seems now nearly dissolved. If he is spared until your book comes out, it will be a great pleasure to him to read it.”
June 29, 1864.—“Mr. Taylor was so much pleased with your letter, and as I read it to him he was quite overcome. Tears of pleasure seldom hurt any one, so I read on to the end.”
July 4, 1864.—“On Friday morning a change took place, and since that time he has been sinking. He looked much pleased when your dedication was read to him, but his great humility prevented him saying much about it. He will never live to see your book, which I hoped it might be my privilege to read to him.
“Thank Mrs. Smyth for her kind and most interesting letter. It was the last letter he heard from beginning to end.”
649And now the closing scene must be told in the words of this kind lady-friend, who was so favoured as to witness this lovely death-bed of a truly Christian man.
“On Friday, the 1st of July, 1864, I had just finished transcribing the little book I had come upon purpose to copy for him, when he said, ‘Now, my dear, it is finished, but it is not completed;’ and he asked me to help him from the sofa to the chair, and reach him a large interleaved Bible, and he endeavoured to explain to me a part he had wished to expound, but illness prevented him. It was about the light Aaron was commanded to burn from six in the evening until midnight, when the length of the day was changed, when the Israelites came out of Egypt. He tried to grasp the Bible in his pale thin hands, and said with a smile, it seemed to have grown heavier. Whilst helping him to hold it, such a fearful panting for breath came on, I thought he was dying; but ‘shortly he rallied, and upon his faithful nurse (Sarah) coming into the room he said, ‘Oh! let me lie down.’ She asked him, ‘Where, sir? On the sofa or the bed?’ He gave again his own sweet smile and said, moving his head from side to side, ‘One place, one place.’
“All Saturday we thought he was dying—the dew of death seemed on his face—but at night, instead of sinking, delirium came on, and for thirty-six hours he wandered incessantly; but even in delirium his thoughts were all for the glory of God and the good of man. His prayers were beautiful. Again and again he would say, ‘Oh! let me lie down, let me lie down in the arms of Thy mercy, and when I awake may I enjoy Thy blessing continually. Grant this, O Lord, for Thy dear Son’s sake. Amen.’ The next night his prayer had changed: it was now, ‘Oh! let me lie down in the arms of Thy pity, and when I rise up, may I dwell in Thy presence for ever.’
650“These and many other expressions uttered in the bell-like voice peculiar to delirium were very touching. Six hours before I left him, he sank into unconsciousness, and the only thing that could be done for him was to moisten his lips with a feather. I would that I could have stayed with him to the last, but I left him with relations, and that was best.
“And thus sweetly and calmly closed the life upon earth of this most remarkable man. He suffered from a severe internal complaint, which was eventually the cause of his death. None, however, but those most intimate with him could have supposed that even when he appeared most cheerful, and seemed to enter with delight into the pursuits of those around him, he was enduring constant pain. No murmur escaped him even in his last struggles, and to those around him he seemed rather to fall asleep than to die.”
Mr. Taylor never married; two sisters survived him, who were invalids at the time of his death; his eldest nephew was with him at the time of his death, and afterwards conveyed his uncle’s mortal remains to the village churchyard of Gamston, near Retford, Mr. Taylor having departed this life on the 5th of July, 1864.
Some little time after his death the executors kindly presented his cherished copy of “Greaves’s Pyramidographia,” and a large bundle of supposed Pyramid-subject MSS. to Piazzi Smyth. He looked over the latter carefully, but finding that the pages were only the returned printer’s “copy”—MSS. put away after reading “proofs” by a methodical hand, such as John Taylor’s always was—he packed them up again, and turned with undivided attention to realising a grand practical duty, which had now devolved upon him, as follows:—
During Mr. Taylor’s and Piazzi Smyth’s 651correspondence, and as already hinted at, it became very manifest how desirable it was to have more accurate and reliable measures of many of the crucial parts of the great monument, so as to place the theory of “The Great Pyramid” on unquestionable basis, or, rather, either to establish or overturn it.
To this end my husband resolved that we should betake ourselves to Egypt with as little delay as possible, taking with us all the best instruments of mensuration we could command. This we did in November, 1864, and for months devoted ourselves to measuring every required part of the Great Pyramid. It was a laborious and fatiguing work, but a labour of love for the truth’s sake.
The results of these admeasurements, after two years’ further occupation in computing and printing, were given to the world in most unusual fulness of the original and actual measures, in “Life and Work at the Great Pyramid”; published by Edmonston and Douglas (now Douglas and Foulis), Edinburgh, in 1867.
The real bearing and importance of these volumes of apparently mere dry numbers was not seen by the public for many years; but when at last the books were well distributed, and had become a sort of known, tested, and unalterable documents before the world at large, then men began to read, and were most astonished to find thereby that not only was John Taylor’s grandest discovery (in theory perhaps chiefly) now practically proved to demonstration; but that there is a vital, growing energy about this ancient Great Pyramid’s awakening, whereby it is acquiring new strength from year to year; and a belief in its truth is spreading in the United States and Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Canada, as well as in this country.
Wherefore if the public, in all these widely separated parts of the world, now demand this Fourth Edition of 652“Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid,” we feel that it ought not to be issued without containing something more than the mere bald dedication towards keeping up the memory, and relating something of the merits, the labours, the virtues and the Christian piety of John Taylor—the first of men to whom has been vouchsafed in the modern world to discover traces of a primeval monumental message of Divine Inspiration; given of old with prophetic purport for the highest benefit of man in these latter days, because to testify to the Lord God of Israel and His Christ from the beginning of human religious history onwards to the end still to come.
J. P. S.