hod 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 After telling us that he had withdrawn from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 Unsuper