477 



©f Americans who, for want of education and 

 attending divine worship, think that man a 

 fool who pays any attention to those du- 

 ties, believing that cunning is the most 

 necessary qualification for mankind to pos- 

 sess. From their unfortunate independency 

 being obtained by artifice, it strengthens 

 their mind much in the practice : the read- 

 er may conceive this to be more likely, 

 when it is known that their chief teach- 

 ers are Tom Paine, Doctor Priestley, and 

 others of the same description. Mr. Jef- 

 ferson, the president, is by many gentle- 

 men in America believed to be an atheist ; 

 though, from my own knowledge in being 

 in his company, I have no reason to say 

 so. There are in his writings some allu- 

 sions to it ; and I saw a paragraph in the 

 newspaper, of his having given Tom Paine 

 a pressing invitation to return to Ame- 

 rica. If so, I should think the report to 

 be true. I remark that paragraph more 

 particularly, because I have said in this 

 work that the Americans disliked Tom 



