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The Age of Reason
by Thomas Paine (1796)
Contents
Editor's Introduction
Part One
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 And
Attributes By The Bible
Chapter XI - Of The Theology Of The Christians; And The True Theology
Chapter XII - The Effects Of Christianism On Education; Proposed Reforms
Chapter XIII - Comparison Of Christianism With The Religious Ideas
Inspired By Nature
Chapter XIV - System Of The Universe
Chapter XV - Advantages Of The Existence Of Many Worlds In Each Solar
System
Chapter XVI - Applications Of The Preceding To The System Of The
Christians
Chapter XVII - Of The Means Employed In All Time, And Almost
Universally, To Deceive The Peoples
Recapitulation
Part Two
Preface
Chapter I - The Old Testament
Chapter II - The New Testament
Chapter III - Conclusion
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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
WITH SOME RESULTS OF RECENT RESEARCHES.
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.
A comparison of the French and English versions, sentence by
sentence, proved to me that the translation sent by Lanthenas to
Merlin de Thionville in 1794 is the same as that he sent to Couthon
in 1793. This discovery was the means of recovering several
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