Bale

bishops caused the printers to be imprisoned and punished; and the editor himself also was committed to the Tower. Here however he acquitted himself so well, that he was not only soon after released, but restored again to the king's favour, and chosen a member of parliament in 1545. calls Taverner's edition of the Bible, "Sacrorum Bibliorum recognitio, seu potius versio nova;" but it is neither a bare revisal of the preceding editions, nor a new version, but between both. It is a correction of what is called Matthewe's Bible; many of whose marginal notes are adopted, and many omitted, and others inserted by the editor. Archbishop Newcome thinks it probable that Taverner's patron, Cromwell, encouraged him to undertake this work, on account of his skill in the Greek tongue; but it is more probable that he was principally induced to it by the printers, as we learn from a passage in the dedication, in which, after telling the king that a correct or faultless translation of the Bible must be the production of many learned men, and of much time and leisure, he adds; "but forasmuch as the printers were very desirous to have the Bible come forth as faultless and emendately as the shortness of the time for the recognising of the same would require, they desired him, for default of a better learned, diligently to overlookand peruse the whole copy, and, in case he should find any notable default that needed correction, to amend the same, &c."

On the accession of king Edward, Taverner, although a layman, had a special licence in 1552 to preach throughout the king's dominions. Good preaching was at that time so very scarce, that not only the king's chaplains were obliged to make circuits round the country to instruct the people, and to fortify them against popery, but even laymen, who were' scholars, were employed for that purpose. From this however he was obliged to desist when queen Mary came to the throne, and therefore retired to Norbiton hall, near Kingston in Surry, where he lived quietly during the whole of her reign. As soon as Elizabeth became queen, to whom he presented a congratulatory epistle in Latin upon that happy occasion, he resumed his preaching in Oxford and elsewhere. Her majesty had a high respect for him, and besides offering him knighthood (which Tanner thinks he accepted), put him into the commission of the peace for the county of Oxford. Here numerous concerns were intrusted to him, and in 1569, he was made high

sheriff of the county. His zeal was still warm against popery, probably owing to the frightful effects of popish bigotry which he had witnessed in Mary's reign, and notwithstanding his new office, he continued his preaching. Even while high sheriff, he appeared in St. Mary's pulpit, with his gold chain about his neck, and his sword by his side, and is said to have begun one of his sermons in the following words: "Arriving at the mount of St. Mary's, in the stony stage * where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biskets, baked in the oven of charity, and carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, and the sweet swallows of salvation." This style was much admired in his days even by the generality of the scholars, and indeed such alliteration was long afterwards a favourite both with speakers and hearers. He also endeavoured to promote the reformation by his writings and translations; of which, besides his Bible, we have the following list: 1. "The sum and pith of CL Psalms of David, reduced into a form of prayers and meditations, with certain other godly orisons," Lond. 1539, 8vo. 2. "The Epistles and Gospels, with a brief postill upon the same, from Advent to Low Sunday; and from Easter to Advent,” Lond. 1540, two parts, 4to. 3. "Fruit of Faith, contain ing all the prayers of the patriarchs, &c. in the Old and New Testament," ibid, 1582, 12mo. 4. "The Garden of Wysdome, &c. containing the sayings of princes, philosophers, &c." 1539, 2 books. 5. "Flores aliquot sententiarum ex variis scriptoribus," translated from Erasmus. "Catonis Disticha Moralia," Lond. 1553, 8vo, 1555, 4to. 7. "In Mimum Publianum lib. 1," 1562. 8." Catechis mus fidei." 9. "Proverbs or adagies gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus," 1545. His translations were, "Grostete's Prayers on the Psalms;" "Confession of the Germans, with the apology of Melancthon," and some tracts from Erasmus.

6.

He

In the latter part of his life, Taverner lived at a seat he had built at Woodeaton in Oxfordshire, whence he dates a letter to archbishop Parker in 1562, excusing himself from lending the queen 100l., from inability at that time. died at this place, July 14, 1575, in the seventieth year of his age, and was buried in the chancel of the church with great solemnity. He married two wives, Margaret St. Mary's pulpit was then of stone. M

VOL. XXIX.

the daughter of Walter Lambert, esq.; and after her decease, Mary, the daughter of sir John Harcourt, and had issue by both. Ward gives some account of his family and descendants in his "Lives of the Gresham Professors.'

TAVERNIER (JOHN BAPTIST), a Frenchman, famous for his travels, was born at Paris in 1605. His father, who was a native of Antwerp, settled at Paris, and traded very largely in geographical maps, so that the natural inclination which Tavernier had for travelling was greatly increased, by the conversations which daily passed in his father's house, concerning foreign countries. He began to gratify his passion so early, that, at the age of two and twenty years, he had seen the finest countries of Europe, France, England, the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. During the space of forty years he travelled six times into Turkey, Persia, and the East Indies, and by all the different routes he could take. In the course of these peregrinations, he gained a great estate by trading in jewels; and, being ennobled by Louis XIV. purchased the barony of Aubonne, near the lake of Geneva, in 1668. He had collected a great num ber of observations, but he had not learned either to speak or write well in French; for which reason he was forced to employ others in drawing up his relations. M. Chappuseau, with whom he lodged at Geneva, lent him his pen for the two first volumes of his travels; and M. Chapelle for the third. They have frequently been printed, and contain several curious particulars; yet not without some fables, which were told him purely to impose upon his simplicity. He is charged also with stealing from others to fill up his own accounts: thus Dr. Hyde, having cited a very long passage from Tavernier, tells us that he had taken it like a downright plagiary from a book printed at Lyons, 1671, in 8vo, and written by father Gabriel de Chis non, who had lived in Persia thirty years."

Tavernier's affairs became embarrassed at the latter end of his life, by reason of the mismanagement and ill cons duct of a nephew, who had in the Levant the direction of

cargo purchased in France for 222,000 livres, and which should have produced above a million. Tavernier there+ fore undertook a seventh journey into the East, to rectify

Ath. Ox. vol. 1.-Masters's Hist. of C. C. C. C.-Ward's Gresham Professors. Newcombe's English Biblical Translations.

this disorder; for which purpose he sold his barony of Aubonne in 1687 to the marquis Dn Quesne, but he died, on his way, at Moscow, in July 1689, aged eighty-four years. He was of the Protestant religion. Several parties, among which were the Dutch and the Jesuits, were offended at certain things inserted in his travels, and he has been abused in print on that account. He has one chapter where he considers the conduct of the Hollanders in Asia; and is very severe upon the directors of their East India company, by whom he represents himself to have suffered : but he declares at the beginning that he does not blame the conduct of the Dutch in general. The first edition of his "Travels" was printed at Paris, 1676-79, 3 vols. 4to. That most common is in 6 vols. 12mo.1

TAYLOR (BROOK), a celebrated philosopher and mathematician, was born at Edmonton in Middlesex, Aug. 28, 1685. His grandfather, Nathaniel Taylor, was one of the Puritans whom Cromwell elected by letter, June 14, 1653, to represent the county of Bedford in parliament. His father, John Taylor, esq. of Bifrons in Kent, is said to have still retained some of the austerity of the puritanic character, but was sensible of the power of music; in consequence of which, his son Brook studied that science early, and became a proficient in it, as he did also in drawing. He studied the classics and mathematics with a private tutor at home, and made so successful a progress, that at fifteen he was thought to be qualified for the university. In 1701 he went to St. John's college, Cambridge, in the rank of a fellow-commoner, and immediately applied himself with zeal to the study of mathematical science, which alone could gain distinction there. It was not long before he became an author in that science, for, in 1708, he wrote his Treatise on the Centre of Oscillation," though it was not published till it appeared some years after in the Philosophical Transactions. In 1709, he took the degree of bachelor of laws; and about the same time commenced a correspondence with professor Keil, on subjects of the most abstruse mathematical disquisition. In 1712 he was elected into the Royal Society, to which in that year he presented three papers, one, "On the Ascent of Water between two Glass Planes." 2." On the Centre of Oscillation." 3. "On the Motion of a stretched String." He presented

1 Moreri. Dict. Hist.

also, in 1713, a paper on his favourite science of music; but this, though mentioned in his correspondence with Keil, does not appear in the Transactions.

His distinguished abilities as a mathematician had now recommended him particularly to the esteem of the Royal Society, who, in 1714, elected him to the office of secretary. In the same year, he took the degree of doctor of laws, at Cambridge. In 1715, he published his "Methodus incrementorum," and a curious essay in the Philosophical Transactions, entitled, "An Account of an Experiment for the Discovery of the Laws of Magnetic Attraction ;" and, besides these, his celebrated work on perspective, entitled "New Principles of Linear Perspective: or the art of designing, on a plane, the representations of all sorts of objects, in a more general and simple method than has hitherto been done." This work has gone through several editions, and received some improvements from Mr. Colson, Lucasian professor at Cambridge. In the same year Taylor conducted a controversy, in a correspondence with Raymond count de Montmort, respecting the tenets of Malbranche, which occasioned him to be noticed afterwards in the eulogium pronounced on that celebrated metaphysician. In 1716, by invitation from several learned men, to whom his merits were well known, Dr. Taylor visited Paris, where he was received with every mark of respect and distinction. Early in 1717, he returned to London, and composed three treatises, which are in the thirtieth volume of the Philosophical Transactions. But his health having been impaired by intense application, he was now advised to go to Aix-la-chapelle, and resigned his office of secretary to the Royal Society. After his return to England in 1719, it appears that he applied his mind to studies of a religious nature, the result of which were found in some dissertations preserved among his papers, "On the Jewish Sacrifices," &c. He did not, however, neglect his former pursuits, but amused himself with drawing, improved his treatise on linear perspective, and wrote a defence of it against the attacks of J. Bernouilli, in a paper which appears in the thirtieth volume of the Philosophical Transactions. Bernouilli objected to the work as too abstruse, and denied the author the merit of inventing his sys*tem. It is indeed acknowledged, that though Dr. B. Taylor discovered it for himself, he was not the first who had trod the same path, as it had been done by Guido Ubaldi,