face 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_."

FOOTNOTES:

[110] Toland was born in Ireland, in 1669, of Roman Catholic parents,
but became a zealous opponent of that faith before he was
sixt