A DISSERTATION ON THE ELEUSINIAN AND BACCHIC MYSTERIES by [Taylor, Thomas] - [1790?]

Amsterdam [i.e. London]: Printed for, and sold by, J. Weitstein, [1790?]. 8vo. [22.5 cm.] iv, 184 pages. Original boards recently rebacked in calf with leather spine label stamped in gold. Front free endpaper is a fairly inconspicuous replacement using old paper. Title and following leaf reinserted on stubs of Japanese tissue. Boards edge-worn, occasional spots in text from soiling or foxing. Still near very good overall. Early owner's inscription on title page ("John Clarke, Ashley, Cheshire, 1813.") FIRST EDITION. "Of all Taylor's essays this remains the one whose value is least impaired by time. It remains unsurpassed as an exposition of mythological themes in the context of the philosophy with which they are traditionally and integrally associated. There is no publication date on the title page, and the presumed date is 1790 or 1791; the imprint of Amsterdam is considered to be fictitious." --Raine and Harper, "Thomas Taylor, The Platonist, Selected Writings," p. 344. Thomas Taylor (1758-1835) was famous for his translations of the Greek classics. These included the first English translation of the complete works of Plato (1804), in which he revised and completed the work of Floyer Sydenham. While his works were treated with scorn by some contemporaries (Coleridge said that with Taylor ‘difficult Greek is transmuted into incomprehensible English’), they were at the same time highly influential. Taylor helped introduce Platonist ideals to the English Romantic poets (Coleridge no exception), and he is said to have had an even greater impact on Emerson and the Transcendental movement in America.