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"sound of just praise; the din of their con"stant enemies, the hasty and eager clamour "of their erring friends sink, lost and undistinguished, in the full harmonious ac"claim."

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In the year 1795, in a letter to me Mr. Lofft thus writes, after objecting to the first part of the Age of Reason: "I am glad Paine "is living he cannot be even wrong without "enlightening mankind; such is the vigour of "his intellect, such the acuteness of his re"search, and such the force and vivid perspi"cuity of his expressions."

It has been a fashion among the enemies of Mr. Paine, when unable to cope with his arguments, to attack his style, which they charge with inaccuracy and want of elegance; and some, even of those most friendly to his principles, have joined in this captious criticism. It had not, perhaps, all the meretricious ornaments and studied graces that glitter in the pages of Burke, which would have been so many obscurities in the eyes of that part of the community for whose perusal his writings

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were principally intended, but it is singularly nervous and pointed; his arguments are always forcibly stated, nor does a languid line ever weary the attention of the reader. It is true, he never studied variety of phrase at the expence of perspicuity. His object was to enlighten, not to dazzle; and often, for the sake of more forcibly impressing an idea on the mind of the reader, he has made use of verbal repetitions which to a fastidious ear may perhaps sound unmusical. But although, in the opinion of some, his pages may be deficient in elegance, few will deny that they are copious in matter; and, if they sometimes fail to tickle the ear, they will never fail to fill the mind.

Distinctness and arrangement are the peculiar characteristics of his writings: this reflection brings to mind an observation once made

to him by an American girl, that his head was like an orange-it had a separate apartment for every thing it contained.

Notwithstanding this general character of his writings, the bold and original style of thinking which every where pervades them

often displays itself in a luxuriance of imagery, and a poetic elevation of fancy, which stand unrivalled by the pages of our english classics.

Thomas Paine was born at Thetford in the county of Norfolk in England, on the 29th of January, 1736. His father Joseph Paine, who was the son of a small reputable farmer, followed the trade of a stay maker, and was by religious profession a quaker. His mother's maiden name was Frances Cocke, a member of the church of England, and daughter of an attorney at Thetford.

They were married at the parish church of Euston, near Thetford, the 20th of June, 1734.

His father, by this marriage out of the society of quakers, was disowned by that community.

Mr. Paine received his education at the grammar school at Thetford, under the Revd. Wm. Knowles, master; and one of his school

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mates at that time was the late counsellor Mingay.

He gave very early indication of talents and strong abilities, and addicted himself, when a mere boy, to reading poetical authors; but this disposition his parents endeavoured to discou

rage,

When a child he composed some lines on a fly being caught in a spider's web, and produced, when eight years of age, the following epitaph on a crow which he buried in the garden:

Here lies the body of John Crow,
Who once was high but now is low;
Ye brother Crows take warning all,
For as you rise, so must you fall.

At this school his studies were directed merely to the useful branches of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and he left it at thirteen years of age, applying, tho he did not like it, to his father's business for nearly five years.

In the year 1756, when about twenty years

of age, he went to London, where he worked some time in Hanover Street, Long Acre, with Mr. Morris, a noted stay maker.

He continued but a short time in London, and it is probable about this time made his seafaring adventure of which he thus speaks: "At an early age, raw and adventurous, and "heated with the false heroism of a master

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[Revd. Mr. Knowles, master of the grammar "school at Thetford] who had served in a man "of war, I began my fortune, and entered on "board the Terrible, Captain Death. From "this adventure I was happily prevented by "the affectionate and moral remonstrances of a good father, who from the habits of his life,

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being of the quaker profession, looked on

me as lost; but the impression, much as it "affected me at the time, wore away, and I "entered afterwards in the King of Prussia

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privateer, Captain Mender, and went with her 66 to sea."

This way of life Mr. Paine soon left, and about the year 1758 worked at his trade for near twelve months at Dover. In April 1759

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