DEDICATION. Celestial TRUTH! the guider of his pen Merits pre-eminence so pure, and holy? O THOU! whose light enlarges every day, ORDER and BEAUTY follow in thy train, And TASTE and HAPPINESS await on THEE; Lift up thy voice aloud and all the VAIN, And all the WRONG and all the FALSE shall flee. Celestial TRUTH! thy blessings I implore, Thy bright reward I seek, and seek no more. PREFACE. THE two following letters are so explanatory of the reasons why the publication of the life of Mr. PAINE has been so long delayed, and are so well calculated to excite the candor of the reader towards the work, that no apology is offered for making them a part of the preface. "THE public has been, within the "last year or two, led to expect a Life of the "celebrated THOMAS PAINE, from the pen of "Mr. CLIO RICKMAN, well known, on various A accounts, to be more thoroughly qualified "for that task than any other person in this "country. σε "This information, however, I repeat as I "received it, uncertain whether it came abroad "in any authenticated shape; and can only "add, that no doubt need be entertained of "sufficient attention from the public in times "like the present, to a well-written life of that extraordinary character, whose principles and precepts are at this moment in full operation over the largest and richest portion of the "habitable globe, and which in regular process "of time may, from the efficacious influence "of the glorious principles of freedom, become "the grand theatre of civilization. "I have often desired to make a commu"nication of this kind to your Magazine, "but am particularly impelled thereto at this moment, from observing in some periodical publications devoted to political and religious bigotry, a sample of their usual sophistical "accounts of the last moments of men who 66 |