demolition. Seven years after this time the
controversy was reopened by Mrs. Collins, in the year 1737, on account
of a report being current that Mrs. C. had permitted transcripts of
those manuscripts to get abroad. The widow wrote some very sharp letters
to Des Maizeaux, and he replied in a tone which speaks faithfully of the
affection he still bore to Collins's memory. He concludes thus:--"Mr.
Collins loved me and esteemed me for my integrity and sincerity, of
which he had several proofs. How I have been drawn in to injure him,
to forfeit the good opinion he had of me, and which, were he now alive,
would deservedly expose me to his utmost contempt, is a grief which I
shall carry to the grave. It would be a sort of comfort to me if those
who have consented I should be drawn in, were in some measure sensible
of the guilt towards so good, kind, generous a man."

Such is an epitome of the secret history of the MSS. of Anthony Collins.
If we look at the fate of the MSS. of other Deists, we shall have good
reasons for believing that some of the ablest writings, meant to give a
posthumous reputation to their authors, have disappeared into the hands
of either ignorant or designing persons. Five volumes, at least, of
Toland's works, meant for publication, were, by his death, irretrievably
lost. Blount's MSS. never appeared. Two volumes of Tindall's were seized
by the Bishop of London, and destroyed. Woolston's MSS. met with no
better fate. Chubb carefully prepared his works, and published them in
his lifetime. Bolingbroke made Mallet his confidant, as Collins did by
Des Maizeaux. The name of St. John produced L10,000 to Mallet; but those
works were left with the tacit acknowledge ment that the Scotch poet
should write a suitable life of the peer. The letter of Mallet to
Lord Cornbury can only be compared to an invitation for a bid for the
suppression of the "Philosophical Works" of St. John; and if this was
not sufficient, we need only instance the apparent solicitation with
which he stopped a well-known influential dignitary of the church on the
day when the works were to appear, by pulling out his watch, and saying,
"My Lord, Christianity will tremble at a quarter to twelve." We may
be thankful to the pecuniary poverty of our opponents even for the
possession of the first philosophy. Some of Hume's and Gibbon's works
have not yet appeared. The MSS. of most of the minor Freethinkers
disappeared with their authors. There is no