ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the opportunistic and sympathetic interpretation of Cicero as a covert unbeliever among the early modern English deists, more specifically through the lens of Anthony Collins. In private correspondence dating to the early 1720s, Collins mentioned a number of times his intention to publish an annotated translation of the two works by Cicero, and that he had discussed terms of publication with the Covent Garden bookseller Richard Dick Francklin. In 1724, the same year in which the Historical and Critical Essay appeared, Collins published in London A Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion. Collins seems therefore to have shared with Stubbed the Spinozan view that every event follows the immutable order of nature. In the Discourse of Free-Thinking Collins devotes quite a few pages to Cicero, whom he includes amongst the most illustrious freethinkers in the history of humanity for having professed Academic or Sceptick philosophy.