In existographies, John Toland (1670-1722) (IQ:180|#160) (FA:62) (CR:24) was an Irish-born British rationalist, philosopher, religio-mythology scholar, self-proclaimed atheist, first to be called a "free thinker", coined by William Molyneux (1697) in reference to him (in letter to John Locke), coiner of the term "pantheist" (1704), as one who sees the universe and god to be one (in letter to Gottried Leibniz), labeled a "modern Lucian" in obituaries, noted for []I. The Origin and Force of Prejudices.
II. The History of the Soul's Immortality Among the Heathens.
III. The Origin of Idolatry, and Reasons of Heathenism.
IV. A Letter to a Gentleman in Holland, Showing Spinoza's System of Philosophy to be Without Any Principle Or Foundation.
V. Motions Essential to Matter; in Answer to Some Remarks by a Noble Friend on the Confutation of Spinoza. To All which is Prefix'd,
VI. A Preface; Being a Letter to a Gentleman in London, Sent Together with the Foregoing Dissertations, and Declaring the Several Occasions of Writing Them
“Pantheism is the belief in no other eternal being but the universe.”— John Toland (1710), “Letter to Gottfried Leibnitz”
“We need not desire a better evidence that any man is in the wrong, than to hear him declare against reason, and thereby to acknowledge that reason is against him.”— John Tillotson (c.1693), Archbishop of Canterbury (Ѻ); front cover quote [1]
“Toland is the great oracle of anti-Christians.”— Jonathan Swift (c.1710) [4]
“Toland is the Lucian of our times.”— Author (1722), “Obituary” [8]
“This truth—that every thing in the universe is in motion; the essence of matter is to act: if we consider its parts attentively, we shall discover that not a particle enjoys absolute repose; those which appear to us to be without motion, are, in fact, only in relative or apparent rest; they experience such an imperceptible motion, and expose it so little on their surfaces, that we cannot perceive the changes they undergo—which is still denied by many metaphysicians, has been conclusively established by the celebrated Toland, in a work which appeared in the beginning of the eighteenth century, entitled Letters to Serena. Those who can procure this scarce work will do well to refer to it, and their doubts on the subject, if they have any, will be removed.”— Denis Diderot (1770), note (pg. 18) to Baron d’Holbach’s §2: Of Motion and its Origin of The System of Nature [6]
“Toland is best known for his call for common-sense thinking in the deist manifesto Christianity Not Mysterious, he gained notoriety as editor and biographer of Milton, Harrington, and Ludlow; translator and publicist of Giordano Bruno; pamphleteer and spy for Robert Harley, and purveyor of Hermetic and clandestine manuscripts for Prince Eugène of Savoy. A self-proclaimed atheist, he amused, annoyed, and embarrassed such personal acquaintances as Locke, Swift, Bayle, Leibniz, Shaftesbury, and Sophie Charlotte of Prussia. His works on biblical criticism, philosophical materialism, and the Druids became sources for Diderot and Holbach; and historians of Freemasonry and of English political and diplomatic affairs continue to search for keys to the intrigue that surrounded him.”— Stephen Daniel (1984), abstract of John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind [5]
“Jacob Reimann, in his Universal History of Atheism (1725), included as atheists: Thomas Hobbes, John Toland, Charles Blount, and Anthony Collins.”— Jennifer Hecht (2003), Doubt: a History [3]
“Even on his deathbed, Toland appeared more interested in books than his own health, after all it was books and ideas that had dominated his life. Crammed into his back room, books were his most precious belongings. Stacked on chairs, teetering in piles on chests, or packed into boxes, these works, and his intimacy with their contents, were the foundation of Toland's reputation. A mixture of recondite theology, classical learning and political tracts, the eclecticism of his library underscores the range of his interests and erudition. Even the last letters he wrote, which as well as describing in harrowing detail his sickness, also included remarks about books. He would lend Lady 'H' a copy of the fine romance Zayde so that she could be freed from the drudgery of the 'longwinded and unwieldy Cleopatra'. To Molesworth, he wrote of Cicero's De Republica and a projected volume on the 'history of the late Wars from King William's death to Queen Anne's peace'.”— Justin Champion (2013) Republican Learning: John Toland and the Crisis Christian Culture, 1696-1722 [8]
“I believe all men will readily allow, that none should speak with more freedom and assurance than he that defends or illustrates the truth.”— John Toland (1696), Christianity Not Mysterious (pg. iii)
“[Toland] was an assertor of liberty, a lover of all sorts of learning, but no man’s follower or dependent. Fowns or fortune bend him to decline from the ways he had chosen.”— John Toland (1722), self-penned epitaph, shortly before his reaction end [2]