508 CONCLUSION. 



we behold is the real, the ever-existing word of God ; it pro- 

 claimeth His power; it demonstrates His wisdom ; it manifests 

 His goodness and beneficence." * 



[Thomas Paine, born 1736 at Thetford, Norfolk, was 

 originally a Quaker. He was the author of many 

 political books and pamphlets, and was generally one 

 of the best abused men of his time, in consequence of 

 his extreme opinions. Finding his own country too 

 hot to hold him he emigrated to America, and held 

 various offices under the American Government during 

 and after the War of Independence. Later on he went 

 to France, where on account of his revolutionary opin- 

 ions he was elected a member of the National Con- 

 vention in 1793, when he voted against the execution 

 of King Louis XVI. f He was afterwards imprisoned, 

 and wrote portions of his "Age of Reason" while in 

 prison. He was generally admitted to be one of the 

 ablest thinkers of his time, but his aggressive policy 

 in ventilating his opinions was continually getting -him 

 into trouble, and upon leaving France (where he escaped 

 the guillotine during the Reign of Terror by the merest 

 accident, through the prison-warder omitting to mark 

 his cell-door with chalk as one of the day's victims) 

 he returned to America, where he died in 1809]. 



* The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine, Pamphlet published in 

 1794, Part i, p. 55. 



f See The National Dictionary of Biography, edited by Sidney Lee, 

 Vol. xliii., p. 75, published 1895 (Article "Thomas Paine"). 



THE END. 



