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that by Sherwin, and that by Clio Rickmen, both then in existence and extensively advertised, you have never looked at for a quotation. The writings of Thomas Paine will ever be his best memoir, and no other that can be written will ever give a better history and display of the man. He wrote what he acted as well

as what he thought, for his were the thoughts that either preceded or followed actions by himself or others, and though he developed new principles, they came forth with all the weight of experience and practicability; they were developed as narratives rather than as theories. His Common Sense developed a principle to the struggling Americans necessary to be acted upon. His Rights of Man was the result of a successful acting upon that principle. And his Age of Reason,' his third great, powerful and well timed work, was a detection of fraud in the actions of others an assault upon the master-trick by which mankind have been plundered and oppressed.

You say: "Mr. Carlile has established his claim to a 'full share of Paine's infamy." I feel the compliment; for I have proved, will again prove in this letter, and Mr. Paine's writings will be a standing proof, that the infamy which I share is that of imitating the most useful man that has yet lived and one of the best moral characters that has passed through life. If your name survives this century, it will be but to stink as that of one of the calumniators of Thomas Paine; mine, I am now satisfied, will go down with his and receive respect through a thousand generations, to be engraved with his on a thousand monuments, and to receive a sort of universal citizenship. I see clearly what I am doing and what will be the effects of those doings, or of the principles which I espouse, upon a long series of years. Had Mr. Paines' Age of Reason' been defended from its first appearance, as I have defended it, this country would have discharged its priests by this time: and, with its priests, three fourths of its present taxation, three fourths of its present misery. The Age of reason,' and I, its defender, have now triumphed over your calumny, over your vice-Society, and over all the priestly influence of this

country.

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Your calumny on Paine is dedicated to Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, your fellow vice suppressor. I know Tommy Acland,' as the Devonshire people call him; and if I recollect his family history rightly, his hatred of Paine, and Republicanism is hereditary; for, his father, or grandfather, got well thrashed and was made a prisoner by the successful, the glorious rebels of the United States. He went out to assist in crushing the rebels and came home without laurels to fall in a duel.

I have a printed document before me which gives the lie to almost every assertion about Mr. Paine, made in your calumnious memoir. In any matter relating to character you have not one truth. Cheetham did mingle some good accounts with his lies and calumnies, but your object was to pick up all that was calum

nious, and to vilify one of human society's best productions, by denying him any one good purpose or quality. A viler act than yours was never performed with the pen your purpose was vile, and your effort has been without effect. You have been quoted by many a priest and religious character; but whenever exposure has followed, and it has followed, and will follow, every where, your slanders will but heighten the admiration of Thomas Paine. As Callender said, of the King's proclamation against the Rights of Man,' it has but illumined the character of the man which it was meant to scorch.

As the document which I am about to copy will almost fill one of my Nos. I must comment on it and on your comment in a second letter. But as to the facts about Mr. Paine, had it been written for the purpose, it could not have been more suitable. It has been drawn forth by the lying religious tracts of this country, and, so far, they have done good, as all such calumnious opposition always does good, and is foremost in defeating its own purposes. Every cause to hate his slanderers will but heighten the admiration for Thomas Paine. You have given cause enough: you have maligned a better man than your fabled Jesus Christ.

The document which is to follow, is an introduction to a new edition of Mr. Paine's Theological works, lately printed at New York. The author of the introduction is Mr. John Fellows, of that city, who was many years the acquaintance of Mr. Paine. But, as this edition has my name as its publisher and is dated London, Mr. Fellows has made it appear, as if I were the author of the introduction and he my communicant on the matters concerning Mr. Paine. I never approve these evasions, and therefore, I give this explanation to set the reader right. It is Mr. Fellows who speaks of his personal observation of the comparatively small quantity of spirituous liquor which Mr. Paine drank, and he brings that very Mr. Dean, as his authority, whose wife you and Cheetham have adopted as the authority for the contrary statement. This introduction is the most faithful sketch of the character of Mr. Paine, in his latter days, that has yet appeared; for even his friends in this country have been led away by the clamours about drunkenness. Were you never drunk? I proceed to the copy.

INTRODUCTION.

BY THE EDITOR.

No writer probably has exposed the impositions practised upon mankind under the garb of religion with more effect than Thomas Paine; and no one has borne a greater share of obloquy from those who conceive their interests to be connected with a continuance of the fraud. The pulpit and the press have teemed incessantly with the most virulent censures against him. But patient and persevering, temperate and firm, he suffered no error to escape him, and the exposure of the blunders and absurdities of his adversaries is the only revenge which he has condescended to take for their insolent abuse. His object was the happiness of man, and uo calumny

could divert him from his purpose. He conscientiously believed that human happiness depended on the belief of one God, and the practice of moral virtue; and that all religious faith beyond that led to persecution and misery History gives an awful confirmation of the justness of his opinion. Dr. Bellamy, author of "The history of all religions," comes to this conclusion at last, that he was "well assured that true religion consists neither in doctrines, nor opinions, but in uprightness of heart."

Religion has been most shamefully perverted, for sinister purposes, and made to consist in the belief of something supernatural and incomprehensible; and these incomprehensible beliefs are made to vary in different countries as may suit those who tyrannize over the minds and consciences of men. Thus, in some countries, he who says, he believes, that a certain man, in former times, was translated bodily to heaven, that another took a journey leisurely there in a fiery chariot, and that a third arrested the course of the sun to give him more daylight for human slaughter is denom nated a pious, good man. In other countries, a person to gain the same appellation, must believe that Mahomet, in one night, took a ride to heaven upon his horse Borack, had a long conversation with the angel Gabriel, visited all the planets, and, got to bed with his wife before morning; and upon another occasion, that he cut the moon in two parts, and carried the one half in his pocket to light his army. Whilst on the contrary the philosopher, who, wishing to instruct and render his fellow men happy, honestly declares that he puts no faith in such idle stories, is considered animpious wicked man.

It is time that these prejudices, so disgraceful to the intelligence of the present age, should be banished from the world, and it behoves all men of understanding and talents to lend a helping hand to effect it

"Prejudices," says Lequinio, an elegant French writer, in his work entitled, Les Prejuges Detruits," "arise out of ignorance and the want of reflection; these are the basis on which the system of despotisin is erected, and it is the master piece of art in a tyrant, to perpetuate the stupidity of a nation, in order to perpetuate its slavery and his own dominion. If the multitude knew how to think, would they be dupes to phantoms, ghosts, hobgoblins, spirits, &c. as they have been at all times and in all nations. What is nobility for example, to a man who thinks? What are all those abstract beings, children of an exalted imagination, which have no existence but in vulgar credulity, and who cease to have being as soon as we cease to believe in them? The greatest, the most absurd, and the most foolish of all prejudices, is that very prejudice which induces men to believe that they are necessary for their happiness, and for the very existence of society."

"

The same writer observes, that, "while there are religions, we are told there will be fanaticism, miracles, wars, knaves, and dupes. There are penitents, fanatics, and hypocrites, in China and in Turkey, as well as in France; but there is not any religion, perhaps, in which there exists such a spirit of intolerance as in that professed by the christian priests, the author of which preached up toleration by his example, as well as by his precepts."

Notwithstanding the intolerant spirit which prevails universally among all those, who call themselves true believers; notwithstanding the persecutions and inquisitorial tortures which take place daily, in a greater or less degree, throughout the Christian world, there are many who although they profess liberal opinions, are so indifferent in matters of religion, as to cóntend, that they ought not to be discussed, except by those whose peculiar

The author's country.

province it is to teach them. Upon this principle, Mr. Paine has been condemned by many even of his friends, as though all men had not an equal stake at issue, and an equal right to express their opinions on so momentous a subject. This sentiment exhibits an apathy to human suffering, in those who express it, that is certainly not very flattering to their goodness of heart.

Were it not for the writings of philosophers, which, where they have been permitted to be read, have in soine measure softened the asperity of fanaticism, all christendom would, no doubt, now experience the same suffer ings as are at this time endured in Spain, under the government of the pious Ferdinand.

Even Bishop Watson, who wrote an "apology for the Bible," in answer to the "Age of Reason," disclaims the above illiberal sentiment; graci ously conceding the right of private judgment in matters of religion. He says, "it would give me much uneasiness to be reported an enemy to free inquiry in religious matters, or as capable of being animated into any degree of personal malevolence against those who differ from me in opinion. On the contrary, I look upon the right of private judgment, in every concern respecting God and ourselves, as superior to the controul of human authority."

It is with some reluctance that I make the following extract of a private letter, a copy of which has lately been inclosed to me by my correspondent at New-York; but the contents are so much in point on this occasion, that I am induced to take the liberty. It was written by one of the most distinguished patriots of the American revolution, and who still remains a living witness of the services of those who essentially contributed to that memorable event, in answer to a letter covering that of Mr. Paine to Andrew A. Dean; which will appear in this publication." I thank you, Sir, for the inedited letter of Thomas Paine, which you have been so kind as to send me. I recognize in it the strong pen and dauntless mind of Common Sense, which among the numerous pamphlets written on the same occasion, so pre-eminently united us in our revolutionary opposition.

"I return the two numbers of the periodical paper, as they appear to make part of a regular file. The language of these is too harsh, more cal culated to irritate than to convince or to persuade. A devoted friend myself to freedom of religious inquiry and opinion, I am pleased to see others exercise the right without reproach or censure; and I respect their conclusions, however different from my own. It is their own reason, not mine, nor that of any other, which has been given them by their creator for the investigation of truth, and of the evidences even of those truths which are presented to us as revealed by himself. Fanaticism, it is true, is not sparing of her invectives against those who refuse blindly to follow her dictates in abandonment of their own reason, For the use of this reason, however, every one is responsible to the God who has planted it in his breast, as a light for his guidance, and that, by which alone he will be judged. Yet why retort invectives? It is better always to set a good example than to follow a bad one."

The advice recommended to controvertists in the foregoing letter is certainly worthy to be adopted. That recrimination, however, should some times be resorted to, by those who advocate liberal opinions, is not sur

* Mr. Jefferson, the late President of America, to William Carver.

R. C.

† “The Republican." Mr. Jefferson had seen nothing like them before, and as in all such cases, they alarmed him. One of those Nos. was the letter to Carver in No. 5 Vol. 8. R. C.

prising, when we take into consideration the dictatorial stile in which ignorance is cultivated by those who reap the advantage of it, and the aspe rity with which those are attacked who attempted to undeceive mankind, and to discover to them their true interests, by pointing out the errors with which they are surrounded.

"Error," says St. Pierre, in his Indian Cottage, or Search after Truth," is the work of man; it is always an evil. It is a false light which shines to lead us astray. I cannot better compare it than to the glare of a fire which consumes the habitation it illumines. It is worthy of remark, that there is not a single moral or physical evil but has an error for its principle. Tyrannies, slavery and wars are founded on political errors, nay even on sacred ones; for the tyrants who have propagated them have constantly derived them from the Divinity, or some virtue, to render them' respected by their subjects.

It is, notwithstanding, very easy to distinguish error from truth. Truth is a natural light, which shines of itself throughout the whole earth, because it springs from God. Error is an artificial light, which needs to be fed incessantly, and which can never be universal, because it is nothing more than the work of man. Truth is useful to all men; error is profitable but to a few, and is hurtful to the generality, because individual interest, when it separates itself from it, is inimical to general interest.

Fic

Particular care should be taken not to confound fiction with error. tion is the veil of truth, whilst error is its phantom; and the former has been often invented to dissipate the latter. But, however innocent it may be in its principle, it becomes dangerous when it assumes the leading quality of error; that is to say, when it is turned to the particular profit of any set of men."

The christian religion answers exactly to this description of error, in every particular. It has been "fed incessantly" for upwards of eighteen hundred years; millions upon millions have been expended on its priests to propagate it, and it is still far from being universal. According to Bellamy's history of all Religions; of eight hundred millions of souls, which the world is supposed to contain, "one hundred and eighty-three millions only are christians. One hundred and thirty millions are Mahometans. Three millions are Jews, and four hundred and eighty-seven millions are Pagans.

Is not this a convincing proof that christianity cannot be true? If it had been divinely inspired, and God had actually visited this earth for the purpose of teaching it to man, would it not, long before this time, have extended throughout the world? It is the work of man, and therefore can never become universal.

Ministers of the gospel, instead of teaching the principles of moral virtue, which would render them useful to their fellow men, are almost incessantly inculcating their peculiar and favorite dogmas: Wishing to make religion to consist in what it does not, in the belief of unintellible creeds, in order to render the subject complex, that their preaching might be thought the more necessary to explain it.

great portion of these ministers, moreover, are mere boys; who, after learning a little Greek and Latin, set up the trade of preaching; and ana

By the word God, the reader must understand what we call nature, or the operations of matter which give life and food to animals. Used in this sense, the word God will do as well as any other; for, so long as we have confused ideas, we must resort to subterfuges to cover them. At least this seems to be a rule with mankind. The words God, Nature, Reason are all subterfuges which exhibit ignorance and express confused ideas. R. C.

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