y the leading literary men of the day would be without
its influence abroad. Its first effect was to elicit great opposition;
and numerous replies poured in from every quarter. Toland's
_Christianity Not Mysterious_ was combated in the year 1760 by
fifty-four rejoinders in England, France and Germany. Up to the same
period, Tindal's _Christianity as Old as the World_ was greeted with one
hundred and six opponents. The Germans repulsed these tendencies bravely
at first, and among others was the gifted and versatile Mosheim, who
delivered public lectures against the influx of Deistical speculations.
But gradually translations were made, and the Germans were soon able to
read those works for themselves. All the Deists were rendered into their
language, and some were honored with many translators. True, there were
replies from the theologians of England immediately upon the appearance
of the works of the leading Deists; but many of them were very feeble,
the puny blows doing more harm than good. When these rejoinders came to
be translated they had almost as deleterious an influence as if they had
been panegyrics instead of well-meant thrusts. John Pye Smith says,
"Translations were made of our Deistical writers of that time, and of a
large number of vindications of Christianity which were published by
some English divines of note in reply to Collins, Tindal, Morgan and
their tribe; and which, in addition to their insipid and unimpassioned
character, involved so much of timid apology and unchristian concession
that they rather aided than obstructed the progress of infidelity."
Through the influence of Baumgarten and others Deism now gained great
favor in Germany. Toland was personally welcomed, flattered and honored
at the very court--that of Frederic William I.--which had banished Wolf,
and made adherence to his doctrines a bar to all preferment.

There was a speedy adoption of English Deism by France, though the
French had manifested strong attachment to skepticism as far back as the
illustrious reign of Louis XIV., whose court had dictated religion and
literature to Europe. It was in 1688 that Le Vasser wrote: "People only
speak of reason, good taste, the force of intellect, of the advantage of
those who put themselves above the prejudices of education and of the
society in which they were born. Pyrrhonism is now the fashion above
everything else. People think that the legitimate exercise of the mind
consists in not believ