the odium of a _freethinker_,--a term
which then began to be in vogue, and which the French adopted by
translating it, in their way, _a strong thinker_, or _esprit fort_.
Whatever tendency to "liberalise" the mind from _dogmas_ and _creeds_
prevails in these works, the talents and learning of Collins were of the
first class. His morals were immaculate, and his personal character
independent; but the _odium theologicum_ of those days contrived every
means to stab in the dark, till the taste became hereditary with some. I
shall mention a fact of this cruel bigotry, which occurred within my own
observation, on one of the most polished men of the age. The late Mr.
Cumberland, in the romance entitled his "Life," gave this extraordinary
fact, that Dr. Bentley, who so ably replied by his "Remarks," under the
name of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, to Collins's "Discourse on
Free-thinking," when, many years after, he discovered him fallen into
great distress, conceiving that by having ruined Collins's character as
a writer for ever, he had been the occasion of his personal misery, he
liberally contributed to his maintenance. In vain I mentioned to that
elegant writer, who was not curious about facts, that this person could
never have been _Anthony_ Collins, who had always a plentiful fortune;
and when it was suggested to him that this "A. Collins," as he printed
it, must have been _Arthur_ Collins, the historical compiler, who was
often in pecuniary difficulties, still he persisted in sending the lie
down to posterity, _totidem verbis_, without alteration in his second
edition, observing to a friend of mine, that "the story, while it told
well, might serve as a striking instance of his great relative's
generosity; and that _it should stand_, because it could do no harm to
any but to _Anthony_ Collins, whom he considered as little short of an
atheist." So much for this pious fraud! but be it recollected that this
Anthony Collins was the confidential friend of Locke, of whom Locke
said, on his dying bed, that "Collins was a man whom he valued in the
first rank of those that he left behind him." And the last words of
Collins on his own death-bed were, that "he was persuaded he was going
to that place which God had designed for them that love him." The cause
of true religion will never be assisted by using such leaky vessels as
_Cumberland's_ wilful calumnies, which in the end must run out, and be
found, like the present, mere empty ficti