whoever associated with him was judged to be an impious and infamous
person. He proposed to form a society which he called Socratia; the hymns
to be sung by the members were the Odes of Horace, and the prayers were
blasphemous productions, composed by Toland, in derision of those used in
the Roman Church. The Council of Religion of the Irish House of Parliament
condemned his book to be burnt, and some of the members wished to imprison
its author, who after enduring many privations wisely sought safety in
flight. A host of writers arrayed themselves in opposition to Toland and
refuted his book, amongst whom were John Norris, Stillingfleet, Payne,
Beverley, Clarke, Leibnitz, and others. Toland wrote also _The Life of
Milton_ (London, 1698), which was directed against the authenticity of the
New Testament; _The Nazarene, or Christianity, Judaic, Pagan, and
Mahometan_ (1718); and _Pantheisticon_ (1720). The outcry raised by the
orthodox party against the "poor gentleman" who had "to beg for half-
crowns," and "ran into debt for his wigs, clothes, and lodging," together
with his own vanity and conceit, changed him from being a somewhat free-
thinking Christian into an infidel and atheist or Pantheist. He died in
extreme poverty at Putney in 1722.

A fitting companion to Toland was Thomas Woolston, who lived about the
same time; he was born at Northampton in 1669, and died at London in 1733.
He was a free-thinker, and a man of many attainments, whose works became
widely known and furnished weapons for the use of Voltaire and other
atheistical writers. In 1705 he wrote a book entitled _The Old Apology_,
in which he endeavoured to show that in the interpretation of the Holy
Scriptures the literal meaning ought to be abandoned, and that the events
recorded therein were merely allegories. In his book _Free Gifts to the
Clergy_ he denounced all who favoured the literal interpretation as
apostates and ministers of Antichrist. Finally, in his _Discourses on the
Miracles_ (1726) he denied entirely the authenticity of miracles, and