Thomas Paine
The Writings of Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason
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Table of contents
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I - THE AUTHOR'S PROFESSION OF FAITH.
CHAPTER II - OF MISSIONS AND REVELATIONS.
CHAPTER III - CONCERNING THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST, AND HIS HISTORY.
CHAPTER IV - OF THE BASES OF CHRISTIANITY.
CHAPTER V - EXAMINATION IN DETAIL OF THE PRECEDING BASES.
CHAPTER VI - OF THE TRUE THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER VII - EXAMINATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
CHAPTER VIII - OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
CHAPTER IX - IN WHAT THE TRUE REVELATION CONSISTS.
CHAPTER X - CONCERNING GOD, AND THE LIGHTS CAST ON HIS EXISTENCE
CHAPTER XI - OF THE THEOLOGY OF THE CHRISTIANS; AND THE TRUE THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER XII - THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANISM ON EDUCATION; PROPOSED
CHAPTER XIII - COMPARISON OF CHRISTIANISM WITH THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS
CHAPTER XIV - SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE.
CHAPTER XV - ADVANTAGES OF THE EXISTENCE OF MANY WORLDS IN EACH SOLAR
CHAPTER XVI - APPLICATION OF THE PRECEDING TO THE SYSTEM OF THE
CHAPTER XVII - OF THE MEANS EMPLOYED IN ALL TIME, AND ALMOST
THE AGE OF REASON - PART II
PREFACE
CHAPTER I - THE OLD TESTAMENT
CHAPTER II - THE NEW TESTAMENT
CHAPTER III - CONCLUSION
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
IN
the opening year, 1793, when revolutionary France had beheaded its
king, the wrath turned next upon the King of kings, by whose grace
every tyrant claimed to reign. But eventualities had brought among
them a great English and American heart—Thomas Paine. He had
pleaded for Louis Caper—"Kill the king but spare the man."
Now he pleaded,—"Disbelieve in the King of kings, but do not
confuse with that idol the Father of Mankind!"In
Paine's Preface to the Second Part of "The Age of Reason"
he describes himself as writing the First Part near the close of the
year 1793. "I had not finished it more than six hours, in the
state it has since appeared, before a guard came about three in the
morning, with an order signed by the two Committees of Public Safety
and Surety General, for putting me in arrestation." This was on
the morning of December 28. But it is necessary to weigh the words
just quoted—"in the state it has since appeared." For on
August 5, 1794, Francois Lanthenas, in an appeal for Paine's
liberation, wrote as follows: "I deliver to Merlin de Thionville
a copy of the last work of T. Payne [The Age of Reason], formerly our
colleague, and in custody since the decree excluding foreigners from
the national representation. This book was written by the author in
the beginning of the year '93 (old style). I undertook its
translation before the revolution against priests, and it was
published in French about the same time. Couthon, to whom I sent it,
seemed offended with me for having translated this work."Under
the frown of Couthon, one of the most atrocious colleagues of
Robespierre, this early publication seems to have been so effectually
suppressed that no copy bearing that date, 1793, can be found in
France or elsewhere. In Paine's letter to Samuel Adams, printed in
the present volume, he says that he had it translated into French, to
stay the progress of atheism, and that he endangered his life "by
opposing atheism." The time indicated by Lanthenas as that in
which he submitted the work to Couthon would appear to be the latter
part of March, 1793, the fury against the priesthood having reached
its climax in the decrees against them of March 19 and 26. If the
moral deformity of Couthon, even greater than that of his body, be
remembered, and the readiness with which death was inflicted for the
most theoretical opinion not approved by the "Mountain," it
will appear probable that the offence given Couthon by Paine's book
involved danger to him and his translator. On May 31, when the
Girondins were accused, the name of Lanthenas was included, and he
barely escaped; and on the same day Danton persuaded Paine not to
appear in the Convention, as his life might be in danger. Whether
this was because of the "Age of Reason," with its fling at
the "Goddess Nature" or not, the statements of author and
translator are harmonized by the fact that Paine prepared the
manuscript, with considerable additions and changes, for publication
in English, as he has stated in the Preface to Part II.
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