The capital was a haven for Toland. The city was large enough to disappear into, with a steadily growing population of around 550,000 in 1700, and diverse enough that he could find like-minded souls to support his cause and person. Thomas Firman for instance was the subject of a paean by Toland for speaking with more ‘disinterestedness and impartiality of our various sects in religion’ and ‘whose charity was as much extended to men of different opinions was it as to the poor of all sorts in good works.’ He also made the acquaintance of John Darby, a printer with whom he contracted an agreement to provide translations of Classical texts in January 1697. Upon returning to London from his ill-starred visit to Dublin, in September 1697, he took up the task of producing editorial work for the printer.

In the character of these compilations, Toland accorded with the political views of a freethinking commonwealth circle, known to themselves as the College, and which gathered around the Grecian Coffeehouse in Devereux Court. Frequenting the establishment was a set of republican thinkers whose public utterances and actions were drawing the attention and suspicion of political enemies as to their secret ambitions and private values. According to Charles Davenant's mean-minded rumour-mongering Toland was inducted into a club ‘that used to meet thrice a week on purpose to invent lies that were to support our friends and blacken our enemies’. Toland himself was a central figure in this cabal, for