ary 1724). _A Discourse concerning Ridicule and
Irony in Writing_ was published on or close to 17 March 1729; see the
advertisement in the _Daily Journal_ for that date.

[7] We can generally fix the date of Rogers's _Eight Sermons_ within the
first two months of 1727 because it was answered early by Samuel
Chandler's _Reflections on the Conduct of the Modern Deists_. (See note
4.) For the dating of Collins's rebuttal, see the _Monthly Catalogue_, No.
49 (May 1727).

[8] To Des Maizeaux (24 June 1727): B. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, ff. 218-219.

[9] For the dating of this work, see the _Daily Post_ (31 January 1728).

[10] For Swift's satire, see _Mr. C---ns's Discourse of Free-Thinking, Put
into plain English, by way of Abstract, for the Use of the Poor_. For
Bentley's devastating probe of Collins's scholarly inadequacies, see his
_Remarks on the Discourse of Free-Thinking. By Phileleutherus Lipsiensis_.
Both works appeared in 1713.

[11] _Scheme_, pp. 432-433.

[12] Edward Chandler, _A Defence of Christianity from the Prophecies of
the Old Testament_ (London, 1725), p. ii.

[13] _A Letter to Dr. Rogers_, p. 89.

[14] _A Vindication of the Divine Attributes_ (London, 1710), p. 24.

[15] Robert Jenkin, _A Brief Confutation of the Pretences against Natural
and Revealed Religion_ (London, 1702), p. 40.

[16] For Collins on his own rhetorical skills, see _Scheme_, p. 402;
William Warburton, _Divine Legation of Moses, Demonstrated_ (London,
1846), III, 199.

[17] Jenkin, _Brief Confutation_, p. 51; for the letter (1 July 1717), see
B. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, f. 137.

[18] Pp. 46-99.

[19] See, for example, the statement of John Conybeare, Bishop of Bristol,
in Joseph Spence, _Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books and
Men_, ed. James M. Osborn (Oxford, 1966), I, sect. 992.

[20] _Essay_, pp. 329-333 (for Whiston's statement of sources); pp.
334-335 (for his defense of literal interpretation). The bracketed
material indicates Whiston's manuscript emendations of his own printed
text; see the British Museum's copy of the _Essay_ (873. 1. 10) which
originally belonged to the mathematician. See Collins, _Grounds and
Reasons_, pp. 98-99, for the summary of Whiston's attack upon allegorical
interpretation.

[21] _Grounds and Reasons_, pp. 20, 48-50.

[22] This terse summary of the persona's argument was correctly made by
Warburton, III, 232.

[23] _Scheme_, p. 391.

[24] _Discourse of Free-Thinking_, pp. 15