The name of TOLAND is more familiar than his character, yet his
literary portrait has great singularity; he must be classed among the
"Authors by Profession," an honour secured by near fifty publications;
and we shall discover that he aimed to combine with the literary
character one peculiarly his own.[110] With higher talents and more
learning than have been conceded to him, there ran in his mind an
original vein of thinking. Yet his whole life exhibits in how small a
degree great intellectual powers, when scattered through all the forms
which Vanity suggests, will contribute to an author's social comforts,
or raise him in public esteem. Toland was fruitful in his productions,
and still more so in his projects; yet it is mortifying to estimate
the result of all the intense activity of the life of an author of
genius, which terminates in being placed among these Calamities.
Toland's birth was probably illegitimate; a circumstance which
influenced the formation of his character. Baptised in ridicule, he
had nearly fallen a victim to Mr. Shandy's system of Christian names,
for he bore the strange ones of _Janus Junius_, which, when the
school-roll was called over every morning, afforded perpetual
merriment, till the master blessed him with plain _John_, which the
boy adopted, and lived in quiet. I must say something on the names
themselves, perhaps as ridiculous! May they not have influenced the
character of Toland, since they certainly describe it? He had all the
shiftings of the double-faced _Janus_, and the revolutionary politics
of the ancient _Junius_. His godfathers sent him into the world in
cruel mockery, thus to remind their Irish boy of the fortunes that
await the desperately bold: nor did Toland forget the strong-marked
designations; for to his most objectionable work, the Latin tract
entitled _Pantheisticon_, descriptive of what some have considered as
an atheistical society, he subscribes these appropriate names, which
at the time were imagined to be fictitious.
Toland ran away from school and Popery. When in after-life he was
reproached with native obscurity, he ostentatiously produced a
testimonial of his birth and family, hatched up at a convent of Irish
Franciscans in Germany, where the good Fathers subscribed, with their
ink tinged with their Rhenish, to his most ancient descent, referring
to the Irish history! which they considered as a parish register, fit
for the suspected son of an Irish Priest!
Toland, from early life, was therefore dependent on patrons; but
illegitimate birth creates strong and determined characters, and
Toland had all the force and originality of self-independence. He was
a seed thrown by chance, to grow of itself wherever it falls.
This child of fortune studied at four Universities; at Glasgow,
Edinburgh, and Leyden; from the latter he passed to Oxford, and, in
the Bodleian Library, collected the materials for his after-studies.
He loved study, and even at a later period declares that "no
employment or condition of life shall make me disrelish the lasting
entertainment of books." In his "Description of Epsom," he observes
that the taste for retirement, reading, and contemplation, promotes
the true relish for select company, and says,
"Thus I remove at pleasure, as I grow weary of the country or the
town, as I avoid a crowd or seek company.--Here, then, let me have
_books and bread_ enough without dependence; a bottle of hermitage and
a plate of olives for a select friend; with an early rose to present a
young lady as an emblem of discretion no less than of beauty."
At Oxford appeared that predilection for paradoxes and over-curious
speculations, which formed afterwards the marking feature of his
literary character. He has been unjustly contemned as a sciolist; he
was the correspondent of Leibnitz, Le Clerc, and Bayle, and was a
learned author when scarcely a man. He first published a Dissertation
on the strange tragical death of Regulus, and proved it a Roman
legend. A greater paradox might have been his projected speculation on
Job, to demonstrate that only the dialogue was genuine; the rest being
the work of some idle Rabbin, who had invented a monstrous story to
account for the extraordinary afflictions of that model of a divine
mind. Speculations of so much learning and ingenuity are uncommon in a
young man; but Toland was so unfortunate as to value his own merits
before those who did not care to hear of them.
Hardy vanity was to recompense him, perhaps he thought, for that want
of fortune and connexions, which raised duller spirits above him.
Vain, loquacious, inconsiderate, and daring, he assumed the
dictatorship of a coffee-house, and obtained easy conquests, which he
mistook for glorious ones, over the graver fellows, who had for many a
year awfully petrified their own colleges. He gave more violent
offence by his new opinions on religion. An anonymous person addressed
two letters to this new Heresiarch, solemn and monitory.[111] Toland's
answer is as honourable as that of his monitor's. This passage is
forcibly conceived:--
"To what purpose should I study here or elsewhere, were I an _atheist_
or _deist_, for one of the two you take me to be? What a condition to
mention virtue, if I believed there was no God, or one so impotent
that could not, or so malicious that would not, reveal himself! Nay,
though I granted a Deity, yet, if nothing of me subsisted after death,
what laws could bind, what incentives could move me to common honesty?
Annihilation would be a sanctuary for all my sins, and put an end to
my crimes with myself. Believe me I am not so indifferent to the evils
of the present life, but, without the expectation of a better, I
should soon suspend the mechanism of my body, and resolve into
inconscious atoms."
This early moment of his life proved to be its crisis, and the first
step he took decided his after-progress. His first great work of
"Christianity not Mysterious," produced immense consequences. Toland
persevered in denying that it was designed as any attack on
Christianity, but only on those subtractions, additions, and other
alterations, which have corrupted that pure institution. The work, at
least, like its title, is "Mysterious."[112] Toland passed over to
Ireland, but his book having got there before him, the author beheld
himself anathematized; the pulpits thundered, and it was dangerous to
be seen conversing with him. A jury who confessed they could not
comprehend a page of his book, condemned it to be burned. Toland now
felt a tenderness for his person; and the humane Molyneux, the friend
of Locke, while he censures the imprudent vanity of our author, gladly
witnessed the flight of "the poor gentleman." But South, indignant at
our English moderation in his own controversy with Sherlock on some
doctrinal points of the Trinity, congratulates the Archbishop of
Dublin on the Irish persecution; and equally witty and intolerant, he
writes on Toland, "Your Parliament presently sent him packing, and
without the help of a _fagot_, soon made the kingdom _too hot_ for
him."
Toland was accused of an intention to found a sect, as South
calls them, of "Mahometan-Christians." Many were stigmatised as
_Tolandists_; but the disciples of a man who never procured for
their prophet a bit of dinner or a new wig, for he was frequently
wanting both, were not to be feared as enthusiasts. The persecution
from the church only rankled in the breast of Toland, and excited
unextinguishable revenge.
He now breathed awhile from the bonfire of theology; and our _Janus_
turned his political face. He edited Milton's voluminous politics, and
Harrington's fantastical "Oceana," and, as his "Christianity not
Mysterious" had stamped his religion with something worse than heresy,
so in politics he was branded as a Commonwealth's-man. Toland had
evidently strong nerves; for him opposition produced controversy,
which he loved, and controversy produced books, by which he lived.
But let it not be imagined that Toland affected to be considered as no
Christian, or avowed himself as a Republican. "Civil and religious
toleration" (he says) "have been the two main objects of all my
writings." He declares himself to be only a primitive Christian, and a
pure Whig. But an author must not be permitted to understand himself
so much more clearly than he has enabled his readers to do. His
mysterious conduct may be detected in his want of moral integrity.
He had the art of explaining away his own words, as in his first
controversy about the word _mystery_ in religion, and he exults in his
artifice; for, in a letter, where he is soliciting the minister for
employment, he says:--"The church is much exasperated against me; yet
as that is the heaviest article, so it is undoubtedly the easiest
conquered, and I know _the infallible method of doing it_." And, in a
letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, he promises to _reform his
religion to that prelate's liking_! He took the sacrament as an
opening for the negotiation.
What can be more explicit than his recantation at the close of his
_Vindicius Liberius_? After telling us that he had withdrawn from
sale, after the second edition, his "'Christianity not Mysterious,'
when I perceived what real or pretended offence it had given," he
concludes thus:--"Being now arrived to years that will not wholly
excuse inconsiderateness in resolving, or precipitance in acting, I
firmly hope that my _persuasion_ and _practice_ will show me _to be a
true Christian_; that my due _conformity_ to the _public worship_ may
prove me to be _a good Churchman_; and that my untainted loyalty to
King William will argue me to be a staunch Commonwealth's-man. That I
shall continue all my life a friend to religion, an enemy to
superstition, a supporter of good kings, and a deposer of tyrants."
Observe, this _Vindicius Liberius_ was published on his return from
one of his political tours in Germany. His views were then of a very
different nature from those of controversial divinity; but it was
absolutely necessary to allay the storm the church had raised against
him. We begin now to understand a little better the character of
Toland. These literary adventurers, with heroic pretensions, can
practise the meanest artifices, and shrink themselves into nothing to
creep out of a hole. How does this recantation agree with the
"Nazarenus," and the other theological works which Toland was
publishing all his life? Posterity only can judge of men's characters;
it takes in at a glance the whole of a life; but contemporaries only
view a part, often apparently unconnected and at variance, when in
fact it is neither. This recantation is full of the spirit of _Janus
Junius_ Toland.
But we are concerned chiefly with Toland's literary character. He was
so confirmed an author, that he never published one book without
promising another. He refers to others in MS.; and some of his most
curious works are posthumous. He was a great artificer of title-pages,
covering them with a promising luxuriance; and in this way recommended
his works to the booksellers. He had an odd taste for running
inscriptions of whimsical crabbed terms; the gold-dust of erudition to
gild over a title; such as "Tetradymus, Hodegus, Clidopharus;"
"Adeisidaemon, or the Unsuperstitious." He pretends these affected
titles indicated their several subjects; but the genius of Toland
could descend to literary quackery.
He had the art of propagating books; his small Life of Milton produced
several; besides the complacency he felt in extracting long passages
from Milton against the bishops. In this Life, his attack on the
authenticity of the _Eikon Basilike_ of Charles I. branched into
another on supposititious writings; and this included the spurious
gospels. Association of ideas is a nursing mother to the fertility of
authorship. The spurious gospels opened a fresh theological campaign,
and produced his "Amyntor." There was no end in provoking an author,
who, in writing the life of a poet, could contrive to put the
authenticity of the Testament to the proof.
Amid his philosophical labours, his _vanity_ induced him to seize on
all temporary topics to which his facility and ingenuity gave
currency. The choice of his subjects forms an amusing catalogue; for
he had "Remarks" and "Projects" as fast as events were passing. He
wrote on the "Art of Governing by Parties," on "Anglia Liberia,"
"Reasons for Naturalising the Jews," on "The Art of Canvassing at
Elections," "On raising a National Bank without Capital," "The State
Anatomy," "Dunkirk or Dover," &c. &c. These, and many like these, set
off with catching titles, proved to the author that a man of genius
may be capable of writing on all topics at all times, and make the
country his debtor without benefiting his own creditors.[113]
There was a moment in Toland's life when he felt, or thought he felt,
fortune in his grasp. He was then floating on the ideal waves of the
South Sea bubble. The poor author, elated with a notion that he was
rich enough to print at his own cost, dispersed copies of his absurd
"Pantheisticon." He describes a society of Pantheists, who worship the
universe as God; a mystery much greater than those he attacked in
Christianity. Their prayers are passages from Cicero and Seneca, and
they chant long poems instead of psalms; so that in their zeal they
endured a little tediousness. The next objectionable circumstance in
this wild ebullition of philosophical wantonness is the apparent
burlesque of some liturgies; and a wag having inserted in some copies
an impious prayer to Bacchus, Toland suffered for the folly of others
as well as his own.[114] With the South Sea bubble vanished Toland's
desire of printing books at his own risk; and thus relieved the world
from the weight of more _Pantheisticons_!
With all this bustle of authorship, amidst temporary publications
which required such prompt ingenuity, and elaborate works which
matured the fruits of early studies, Toland was still not a sedentary
writer. I find that he often travelled on the continent; but how could
a guinealess author so easily transport himself from Flanders to
Germany, and appear at home in the courts of Berlin, Dresden, and
Hanover? Perhaps we may discover a concealed feature in the character
of our ambiguous philosopher.
In the only Life we have of Toland, by Des Maiseaux, prefixed to his
posthumous works, he tells us, that Toland was at the court of Berlin,
but "an incident, _too ludicrous to be mentioned_, obliged him to
leave that place sooner than he expected." Here is an incident in a
narrative clearly marked out, but never to be supplied! Whatever this
incident was, it had this important result, that it sent Toland away
in haste; but _why_ was he there? Our chronological biographer,[115]
"good easy man," suspects nothing more extraordinary when he tells us
Toland was at Berlin or Hanover, than when he finds him at Epsom;
imagines Toland only went to the Electoral Princess Sophia, and the
Queen of Prussia, who were "ladies of sublime genius," to entertain
them by vexing some grave German divines, with philosophical
conferences, and paradoxical conundrums; all the ravings of Toland's
idleness.[116]
This secret history of Toland can only be picked out by fine threads.
He professed to be a literary character--he had opened a periodical
"literary correspondence," as he terms it, with Prince Eugene; such as
we have witnessed in our days by Grimm and La Harpe, addressed to some
northern princes. He was a favourite with the Electoral Princess
Sophia and the Queen of Prussia, to whom he addressed his "Letters to
Serena." Was he a political agent? Yet how was it that Toland was
often driven home by distressed circumstances? He seems not to have
been a practical politician, for he managed his own affairs very ill.
Was the political intriguer rather a suspected than a confidential
servant of all his masters and mistresses? for it is evident no one
cared for him! The absence of moral integrity was probably never
disguised by the loquacious vanity of this literary adventurer.
In his posthumous works are several "Memorials" for the Earl of
Oxford, which throw a new light over a union of political _espionage_
with the literary character, which finally concluded in producing that
extraordinary one which the political imagination of Toland created in
all the obscurity and heat of his reveries.
In one of these "Memorials," forcibly written and full of curiosity,
Toland remonstrates with the minister for his marked neglect of him;
opens the scheme of a political tour, where, like Guthrie, he would be
content with his _quarterage_. He defines his character; for the
independent Whig affects to spurn at the office, though he might not
shrink at the duties of a spy.
"Whether such a person, sir, who is _neither minister nor spy_, and as
a _lover of learning will be welcome everywhere_, may not prove of
extraordinary use to my Lord Treasurer, as well as to his predecessor
Burleigh, who employed such, I leave his lordship and you to
consider."
Still _this character_, whatever title may designate it, is inferior
in dignity and importance to that which Toland afterwards projected,
and which portrays him where his life-writer has not given a touch
from his brush; it is a political curiosity.
"I laid an honester scheme of serving my country, your lordship, and
myself; for, seeing it was neither convenient for you, nor a thing at
all desired by me, that _I should appear in any public post_, I
sincerely proposed, as occasions should offer, to communicate to your
lordship my observations on _the temper of the ministry, the
dispositions of the people, the condition of our enemies or allies
abroad_, and what I might think _most expedient in every conjuncture_;
which advice you were to follow in whole, or in part, or not at all,
as your own superior wisdom should direct. My general acquaintance,
the several languages I speak, the experience I have acquired in
foreign affairs, and being engaged in no interest at home, besides
that of the public, should qualify me in some measure for this
province. ALL WISE MINISTERS HAVE EVER HAD SUCH PRIVATE MONITORS. As
much as I thought myself fit, or was thought so by others, for such
general observations, so much have I ever abhorred, my lord, _those
particular observers we call SPIES_; but I despise the calumny no less
than I detest the thing. Of such general observations, you should have
perused a far greater number than I thought fit to present hitherto,
had I discovered, by due effects, that they were acceptable from _me_;
for they must unavoidably be received from _somebody_, unless a
minister were omniscient--yet I soon had good reason to believe I was
not designed for the man, whatever the original sin could be that made
me incapable of such a trust, and which I now begin to suspect.
Without direct answers to my proposals, how could I know whether I
helped my friends elsewhere, or betrayed them contrary to my
intentions! and accordingly I have for some time been very cautious
and reserved. But if your lordship will enter into any measures with
me to procure _the good of my country_, I shall be more ready to
_serve_ your lordship in this, or in some becoming capacity, than any
other minister. They who confided to my management affairs of a higher
nature have found me exact as well as secret. My impenetrable
negociation at Vienna (hid under the pretence of curiosity) was not
only applauded by the prince that employed me, but also proportionably
rewarded. And here, my lord, give me leave to say that I have found
England miserably served abroad since this change; and our ministers
at home are sometimes as great strangers to the genius as to the
persons of those with whom they have to do. At ---- you have placed
the most unacceptable man in the world--one that lived in a scandalous
misunderstanding with the minister of the States at another court--one
that has been the laughing-stock of all courts, for his senseless
haughtiness and most ridiculous airs--and one that can never judge
aright, unless by accident, in anything."
The discarded, or the suspected _private monitor of the Minister_
warms into the tenderest language of political amour, and mourns their
rupture but as the quarrels of lovers.
"I cannot, from all these considerations, but in the nature of a
lover, complain of your present neglect, and be solicitous for your
future care." And again, "I have made use of the simile of a lover,
and as such, indeed, I thought fit, once for all, to come to a
thorough explanation, resolved, if my affection be not killed by your
unkindness, to become indissolubly yours."
Such is the nice artifice which colours, with a pretended love of his
country, the sordidness of the political intriguer, giving clean names
to filthy things. But this view of the political face of our _Janus_
is not complete till we discover the levity he could carry into
politics when not disguised by more pompous pretensions. I shall give
two extracts from letters composed in a different spirit.
"I am bound for Germany, though first for Flanders, and next for
Holland. I believe I shall be pretty well accommodated for this
voyage, which I expect will be very short. Lord! how near was _my old
woman_ being a queen! and your humble servant being _at his ease_."
His _old woman_ was the Electoral Princess Sophia; and _his ease_ is
what patriots distinguish as _the love of their country_! Again--
"The October Club,[117] if rightly managed, will be rare stuff _to
work the ends of any party_. I sent such an account of these wights to
an _old gentlewoman_ of my acquaintance, as in the midst of fears (the
change of ministry) will make her laugh."
After all his voluminous literature, and his refined politics, Toland
lived and died the life of an Author by Profession, in an obscure
lodging at a country carpenter's, in great distress. He had still one
patron left, who was himself poor, Lord Molesworth, who promised him,
if he lived,
"Bare necessaries. These are but cold comfort to a man of your spirit
and desert; but 'tis all I dare promise! 'Tis an ungrateful age, and
we must bear with it the best we may till we can mend it."
And his lordship tells of his unsuccessful application to some Whig
lord for Toland; and concludes,
"'Tis a sad monster of a man, and not worthy of further notice."
I have observed that Toland had strong nerves; he neither feared
controversies, nor that which closes all. Having examined his
manuscripts, I can sketch a minute picture of the last days of our
"author by profession." At the carpenter's lodgings he drew up a list
of all his books--they were piled on four chairs, to the amount of
155--most of them works which evince the most erudite studies; and as
Toland's learning has been very lightly esteemed, it may be worth
notice that some of his MSS. were transcribed in Greek.[118] To this
list he adds--"I need not recite those in the closet with the unbound
books and pamphlets; nor my trunk, wherein are all my papers and MSS."
I perceive he circulated his MSS. among his friends, for there is a
list by him as he lent them, among which are ladies as well as
gentlemen, _esprits forts_!
Never has author died more in character than Toland; he may be said to
have died with a busy pen in his hand. Having suffered from an
unskilful physician, he avenged himself in his own way; for there was
found on his table an "Essay on Physic without Physicians." The dying
patriot-trader was also writing a preface for a political pamphlet on
_the danger of mercenary Parliaments_; and the philosopher was
composing his own epitaph--one more proof of the ruling passion
predominating in death; but why should a _Pantheist_ be solicitous to
perpetuate his genius and his fame! I shall transcribe a few lines;
surely they are no evidence of Atheism!
Omnium Literarum excultor,
ac linguarum plus decem sciens;
Veritatis propugnator,
Libertatis assertor;
nullus autem sectator aut cliens,
nec minis, nec malis est inflexus,
quin quam elegit, viam perageret;
utili honestum anteferens.
Spiritus cum aethereo patre,
a quo prodiit olim, conjungitur;
corpus item, Naturae cedens,
in materno gremio reponitur.
Ipse vero aeternum est resurrecturus,
at idem futurus TOLANDUS nunquam.[119]
One would have imagined that the writer of his own panegyrical epitaph
would have been careful to have transmitted to posterity a copy of his
features; but I know of no portrait of Toland. His patrons seem never
to have been generous, nor his disciples grateful; they mortified
rather than indulged the egotism of his genius. There appeared,
indeed, an elegy, shortly after the death of Toland, so ingeniously
contrived, that it is not clear whether he is eulogised or ridiculed.
Amid its solemnity these lines betray the sneer. "Has," exclaimed the
eulogist of the ambiguous philosopher,
Each jarring element gone angry home?
And _Master Toland_ a _Non-ens_ become?
LOCKE, with all the prescient sagacity of that clear understanding
which penetrated under the secret folds of the human heart,
anticipated the life of Toland at its commencement. He admired the
genius of the man; but, while he valued his parts and learning, he
dreaded their result. In a letter I find these passages, which were
then so prophetic, and are now so instructive:--
"If his exceeding great value of himself do not deprive the world of
that usefulness that his parts, if rightly conducted, might be of, I
shall be very glad.--The hopes young men give of what use they will
make of their parts is, to me, the encouragement of being concerned
for them; but, _if vanity increases with age, I always fear whither it
will lead a man_."