Not Mysterious." On this he was for a considerable time employed, and it was not published till after his arrival in London in 1696. Its reception was such as might be well inferred by a sagacious reader of such a work. Toland had proceeded with caution: he was aware that by a certain degree of moderation in not pursuing his opinions to their full lengths, he might not only present a less assailable front to his opponents; but that he would even have a large portion of the nominal christian world on his side. The world, while its common sense and its formal respect for truth is shocked by open assaults upon christianity, is yet not displeased to have its authority lessened, and its pure and severe spirit lowered into conformity with the inferior standard which it is willing to adopt. Such was the apparent tendency of Toland's first attack; and it imposed on many good, and even upon some wise men. Such deceptions had, however, their foundation in the unhappy state of ignorance of the doctrinal system of scripture which then prevailed. As this ignorance must have failed to affect the opinions of churchmen, and of the christian portion of the community, Toland's book could not escape attacks, and a degree of reprobation adequate to its real demerits. And such were, in effect, the consequences. He was immediately assailed with merited severity: he was refuted in numerous publications, and prosecuted by law. Such prosecutions require, at least, very strong grounds to render them. not injudicious. In all such cases, it is incumbent on the executive government to compute, with precision, the amount of the real consequences of the crime, or of the prosecution. It is, perhaps, only where the law is seconded by public opinion, that such a measure can ever have its proper consequences. This was not such a case; the spirit of the hour was in Toland's favour; the zeal for liberty of opinion was high, and that of religious feeling was low; and there was a temper of mind cultivated, which diverted the understandings of men like Molyneux and Locke from looking at the matter in its actual bearings. They looked on Toland, not as a wily foe to truths which they themselves held in veneration, but as one who, like themselves, was impatient of the shackles of ancient error, and who stood forth boldly to place christianity on the grounds of reason. In their views also there were errors which it would complicate this memoir to disentangle here we shall come presently to their exposition.

For a time, and but for a time, Mr Locke was imposed upon by his own prepossessions and the dexterity of Toland; and he became his zealous supporter in the storm of opposition. Notwithstanding his zeal for freedom, and his love of toleration, and some incorrect tenets —which were, in a measure, the result of his temper of mind and his times-Mr Locke was soon awake to the dubious pretensions of the empiric; he took his part, but was too cautious to admit him to his intimacy. He was especially offended by the inordinate vanity which seems to have been the characteristic feature of Toland. Mr Locke's sagacity could not have been long deceived: every one, who is much conversant with mankind, will at once comprehend, that there are slight indications in the countenance, manner, gesture, and language, too fine to be distinctly described, or to find their way into any record, but which, like characteristic looks, at once strike the

knowing observer with a prescient impression of the real character of the person. And, above all, in such a character as Toland's will presently appear to have been, these indications are never wanting. The adventurer is ever marked by some of those fine irregularities of aspect and manner which are best designated by the term "scampish." Toland came over to Dublin, where his fame had preceded him. He heard his book analyzed, and its intent exposed and refuted in the pulpit; and was, very generally, encountered with question and controversy. This was, however, rendered personally hurtful by the manner and temper in which it was met. The overweening vanity of the man led him to the display of arrogant pretensions, and to a rude and dogmatic disregard for time, place and person. The caution which, in some degree, guarded the pernicious absurdities of his book, was abandoned in colloquial discussion; and it is probable, too, that numerous unrecorded, but easily inferred, indications in his habits, such as we have already described, led to a more true and just appreciation of his real views. He gradually accumulated a body of opinion and feeling against himself, and the consequence is stated in a letter from Mr Molyneux to Locke:-" Mr Toland is, at last, driven out of our kingdom. The poor gentleman, by his imprudent management, had raised such an unusual outcry, that it was even dangerous for a man to have been known once to converse with him. This made all wary men of reputation decline seeing him-insomuch that, at last, he wanted a meal's meat, as I am told-and none would admit him to their tables. The little stock of money which he brought to this country being exhausted, he fell to borrowing from any one who would lend him half-a-crown; and ran in debt for his wigs, clothes, and lodgings, as I am informed. And, last of all, to complete his hardships, the parliament fell on his book-voted it to be burned by the common hangman-and ordered the author to be taken into custody by the serjeant-at-arms, and to be prosecuted by the attorneygeneral at law. Hereupon he is fled out of the kingdom, and none here knows where he has directed his course." We consider this account so far important, as it exhibits the real character of this wretched man-in whom no small intellectual powers were wasted and degraded. We are desirous to take the opportunity to illustrate an important first truth-that there is a nearer connexion than is, perhaps, generally suspected between moral virtue and right reason. With this consideration we shall not, however, interrupt our narrative, as it will find a more convenient place at the end of our memoir, when every part of the subject will have been distinctly stated.

From Dublin Toland proceeded to take refuge in London. There, comparatively secure in the obscurity of the throng, he digested the insults his vanity had sustained, and meditated vindictive attacks on the christian religion. His courage was not equal to his resentment. Not daring to give a direct blow to the object of his malice, he seems to have projected, from the first, what he considered the safer course. As he had commenced with a design to overthrow revealed religion under the pretext of friendship, by placing it in an assailable position, he next conceived the project of attacking it more directly under the pretext of arguments apparently unconnected with it. For this pur

pose it was easy to find the pretext the genuineness of the Icon Basilike presented precisely the occasion to misrepresent the evidences for the canon of scripture, without committing him directly on so dangerous a subject, Of course, however, in a country like England, the remotest and most dexterous falsification of the laws of evidence could not escape, nor could the cowardly artifices of sophistry be long permitted to lurk, under the cover of perfidious insinuation. Toland was quickly dragged to light by Dr Blackall, afterwards bishop of Exeter. He had the poverty of spirit to vindicate himself by falsehood, and asserted that it had been his design, not to attack, but to illustrate and confirm the canon of the scriptures.

The subject was introduced in the lower house of convocation, and five propositions were extracted from his former publication, "Christianity Not Mysterious"—on which the resolution was past, that, “in their judgment, the said book contained pernicious principles, of dangerous consequence to the christian religion; that it tended, and—a they conceived-was written on a design to subvert the fundamental articles of the christian faith," &c. The resolution, of which this is a portion, was reported to the upper house, and it passed a resolution to prosecute the author. This course was prevented by the opinion of the law authorities consulted upon the occasion, that the convocation could not act without a license from the king. Toland had the weakness to triumph in such an escape; and, drawing the conclusion that he might now proceed more boldly, he began more freely to avow his genuine views.

It does not appear to us in any way necessary to waste our fastcontracting space, in detailing the political adventures of Toland. He was a political pamphleteer of great expertness and talent; and his character and abilities found their most appropriate level in party intrigue. Had the elements of his moral temper been of a higher and firmer order, and his career exclusively that for which his talents qualified him, we might, happily, have here a different and more agreeable duty to discharge. But in the actual case, he has no claim upon us but as a deist mischievous in his generation.

A brief statement of some otherwise unimportant facts, may, however, be very available for our main purpose. Toland appears in two characters distinct in themselves. We think it a part of our task to identify them. There is a truth of much general application, which should be here observed. On every side, in all great questions in which principle is involved, both parties will find zealous support from persons of extreme, and, therefore, pernicious and false views. Thus, as we shall find order and religion often maintained by prejudice and official corruption, so will the intriguer for license appear among the advocates for liberty. There is, therefore, no deduction to be made from the unfavourable portrait we would here draw for Toland, that his political principles place him among the constitutional ranks of the whigs of 1690. The ability of his pamphlets gave him a momentary importance. His "Anglia Libera" was published in 1701, upon the passing of the act of settlement; and when the earl of Macclesfield was sent to Hanover with a copy of the act to the electoral family, whose succession was thus secured, Toland accompanied him, and the earl presented his

book to the princess Sophia. He was, consequently, received with all the favour due to a zealous and useful supporter of the succession: he remained for some weeks at court, and, on his return, was dismissed with presents and honours, among which were portraits of the members of the electoral family. He visited Berlin, with such favourable recommendations, as gave him there, also, access to the court. Such advantages, with the useful talents which he unquestionably possessed, placed him on a footing from which a man of high masculine virtues would have scarcely failed to rise to eminence, and such honours and promotions as are the main objects of public life. But the person who can be used in services of doubtful respectability is, for obvious reasons, not likely to be raised to a higher sphere of action: there are those whose perceptions of the difference between the lofty and the mean are so obtuse, that their ambition will seldom fail to rush upon courses of low subserviency as the paths of advancement, and become the useful and despised servants of firmer and prouder spirits. Such a man we see all reason to pronounce Toland. His pen was employed by Mr Harley, and he obtained the character of being employed by him as a spy. The imputation sits at least consistently upon his character, as known by all the earlier known incidents of his life. Indeed, upon Toland the character reflects no discredit, and it is only important for the lesson which we have endeavoured to point out ;-he had the talents and opportunities which gave a different kind of importance to the characters of Swift, Steele, and Addison. If, however, it were worth while to reason out the allegation, it is to be observed, that there is strong confirmation, in a variety of ascertained particulars, which mark the habits and relations acquired in a course of active political intrigue. Without having attained reputation or honourable promotion, Toland was evidently in the use and possession of the underhand avenues and approaches, which enabled him to assume the pretence of an influence which he did not possess, and to act as a place-broker for others. This is not, however, intended to be charged wholly to fraudulent intent. His inordinate vanity led him to exaggerate his importance, he was useful, and thought himself important. Deficient in the fine and lofty instincts of more elevated minds, Toland could walk with unconscious vanity in degrading ways, and glory in positions where others would be ashamed.

In the course which may be thus generally described he spent several years,—most successful as a pamphleteer, employed by statesmen, and rewarded by profuse gifts and remunerations,-passing also through a great variety of vicissitudes and adventures, of which there is no record but the evidence of vaguely described results. In 1718, he seems at last to have subsided into the philosopher again-the spirit of his youth returned, and he began to publish a continuation of the series of writings for the sake of which we notice him here. In 1725, his "Pantheisticon" appeared, in which it plainly appears, that the opponent of those mysteries which are made known by revelation, may have no objection to mysteries of his own invention. The following is a speci"In mundo omnia sunt unum; unumque est omne in omnibus; quod omne in omnibus Deus est; æternus ac immensus, neque genitus neque interiturus. In eo vivimus, movemus, et existimus. Ab eo na

men:

tum est unumquidque, in eumque denuo reverturum.” Such is the statement of what may be regarded as the fundamental tenet of the sect of Pantheists-the blasphemous and atheistic society to which Toland belonged. Its entire want of distinct meaning, is such as to suggest the anxious question,-why it is that those who reject the plain and forcible evidences of the christian religion, can be imposed upon by such senseless absurdity. The answer is complicated with numerous considerations; among which is the important fact, that deism is not founded either on the use, or even the abuse of reason, although, in common with all the errors and crimes of men, it is thought important to plead so imposing a sanction; and hence appears the very common phenomenon of persons disclaiming what they would call the impositions of priests and sects, on the alleged ground of the same want of sense and reasonable ground, which is truly and glaringly perceptible in those creeds and philosophies which they set up for themselves. But the secret is made far more apparent from the direct comparison of that which they follow and that which they reject. The religion which would "mortify the deeds of the body," may, in the present instance, be weighed against the pantheism described by Toland. Pantheism, on the authority of a pantheist, was the elevation of every vice into a virtue, by the only means in which human reason could be forced into a sanction-the adoption of unintelligible tenets to perplex the understanding—and, under pretence of reason, set common sense aside. The pantheists were a bacchanalian society, which met to participate in the most frantic follies and indulgences, and encourage each other into a defiance of all restraints of conscience. At those neetings, it was customary to have authorities for atheism brought forward, and passages read out of such ancient writers as might seem to favour the same object. Thus, indeed, and it is but one of a class, of similar cases,—the very religious feelings implanted in the human breast are converted into a barrier against religion itself.

Toland's book was published at the call of hunger. He had dropped into poverty and neglect; he had been used and abused; and, like all such tools, thrown aside. He was compelled to write a book, not for sale, but to levy a contribution on charity. The subject readiest to his understanding, and nearest to his heart, was the raving impiety of pantheism. The book was privately circulated among such persons as could be prevailed upon to make it the excuse for their benevolence. Among its purchasers, it may be presumed that the greater number were ignorant of the real nature of the book.

mers.

Toland was living in London in the winter of 1722, when he fell so ill as to be compelled to have recourse to medical advice. The treatment he received was not successful, and he left his physician and retired to Putney, where he had long been accustomed to pass his sumHere, for a time, he recovered his strength so far as to be enabled to write "A Dissertation upon the uncertainty of Physic, and the danger of trusting our lives to those who practise it." He soon, however, found that it was not impossible to die without a doctor's help; and, after a short and tedious illness, expired in March, 1722.

We approach, with some reluctance, the discharge of our critical duty in the estimate of the literary character of Toland. The space