TOLAND, Jolts, a well-known deistical writer, of the 17th and 18th c., was b. near the village of Redcastle, in the co. of Londonderry, Ireland, Nov. 30, 1669 (or 1670). His parents were Roman Catholics, and he was brought up in that religion. His baptismal name was James Junius; but the ridicule which it drew upon him at school, led him to change it into John, by which he is now known. He was educated at Redcastle, and entered the university of Glasgow in 1687, but removed to that of Edinburgh, where he took the degree of master of arts in 1690. Thence lie passed to Leyden, where (hav ing abandoned at Edinburgh the Roman Catholic faith) he entered upon theological studies with a view to orders as a nonconformist minister. One of his masters at Ley-• den was the celebrated Spanheim. He remained there about two years, during which time be made the acquaintance of Leibnitz and some other distinguished men; and on his return to England, he resided for some time at Oxford, where his extravagant vanity, and the reckless boldness of his opinions on religion, drew on him much notice. In the Bodleian library, he collected the materials of more than one of his later publications, and prepared in great part the work entitled Christianity not Mysterious, which he pub lished in London in 1696, and in which he fully avowed his unbelieving principles. The work created a great sensation in the theological world. It was censured by convoca tion, and led to several replies (among which, those of Payne and Stillingfleet may be specially noticed); and in the following year, Toland resolved to return to Ireland, sending before him a large number of copies of his work: but he was received no less unfavorably. than in England, and his book was burned publicly by the common hang men, in virtue of an express vote of the Irish parliament. Finding it necessary to flee from Ireland, Toiand returned to London, where be published a defense against this judgment of the Irish parliament; but he soon afterward turned his pen from theologi cal to political and literary subjects. A pamphlet entitled Anglia Libera, on the succes sion of the house of Brunswick, led to his being received with favor by the princess Sophia at the court of Hanover; and to his being sent on a kind of political mission to some of the German courts During his residence abroad, he published in 1702 a vindication of his book against the judgment of the convocation, the tone of which was considerably more moderate; but again, in 1705, lie outstripped the boldness of his former opinions, and with still less of disguise, openly avowing himself a pantheist. In this course be was emboldened by
the patronage of Harley, in whose service he had engaged as a political pamphleteer, and by whom lie was sent abroad to Holland and Germany in 1707, in a capacity which, however he disavowed it, plainly that of a political spy. He returned to England in 1710; and having forfeited the favor of his patron, or at least having separated from him, he engaged as a partisan pamphleteer on the side of Harley's adversaries.
His after-life was that of a literary adventurer, and was checkered by every variety of literary conflict and pecuniary struggle. It forms one of the most curious and pain ful chapters in Disraeli's Calamities of Authors. He resided front the year 1718 at Put ney, where he died, Mar. 11, 1722, in his 52d or 53d year; and it is observed by Disraeli, that on his table was found an Essay on Physics without Physicians, which he was writing, in revenge for the unskillful treatment which he himself had suffered in his malady.
Of his works, which were very numerous, but have never been collected into a uni form edition, the following are the most remarkable: Christianity not Mysterious: a treatise showing that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to Reason, nor above it (Loud. 1696); Apology for Mr. Toland (1697); Life of Milton; prefixed to Milton's works, 3 vols. folio (1698); Anglia Libera,.or the Limitation and Succession of the Crown explained and asserted (1701); Vindicus Liberius, or Mr. Toland's Defence of Himself against the Lower House of Convocation (1702); Socinianism, truly stated (1705); Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews (1714); State Anatomy of Great Britain (1714); Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile, or Maluimetan Christianity (1718). A detailed account of these works would be out, of place, but they all exhibit in a general way the characteristics described above. His post humous works were published in 2 vols. 8vo, in 1726, with alife by Des Maizeaux. An Account of Toland's Life and Writings, ascribed to Curie, had previously appeared in 1722. It should be added that the above list is far from containing all the writings of this now little known, but once active and notorious polemic