at sea in a vessel, with respect to the management of which, the vote of all who happened to go on board was going to be taken? And do the managers of the ship of state require less preparation than do common sailors? Do they not require so much more useful knowledge than they have ever been qualified with, that they have always wrecked or capsized the ship of state, except where it is only a question of time when they will do so? Evidently, church and state management require art and skill infinitely superior to what "supernaturalism" and its legitimate child, monarchism, or its bastard issue, caucus-andballot-boxism, are capable of. From the dissecting room; the chemical laboratory; the astronomical observatory; physicians' and physiologists' study; in fine from all the schools of science and art, should human law be declared, instead of being enacted" in legislative halls, by those who, in every respect besides political trickery, fraud, and "smartness," are perfect ignor

amuses.

66

Nature throughout, must be so modified (not changed); so liberated from the thraldom of antagonism or counteraction; in short, so improved by art, that the conditions which now necessitate despotism and evil will be superseded by those which will make liberty, and all that is desirable, as spontaneous as is the order of the spheres.

Man naturally desires to be good. There is not, never was, and never can be, a sane human being who would not like to have things so arranged, that every human desire could be fully gratified, instead of, as now, almost wholly denied gratification; man's "holy" or "heavenly" desires, the very quintessence of sensualness, are a constant, and will be an everlasting testimony to the truth of this.

Priestcraft cannot be put down till man obtains his "being's end and aim," or is satisfied that it is attainable, in this material, this perceptible, this sense-world. To desire must be to possess, with the exception (if it can be called an exception) of the intervention of just exertion enough to give to possession its due value. Mankind will, with few exceptions, scorn reason, so long as it arrays itself against human instinct; against what man feels to be true. And until science and art give man (or assures him that they can give him) the perfect and sufficiently lasting happiness which he instinctively knows that the power which created him owes him and stands pledged to give him or turn out to be an almighty failure, he will pursue that happi

ness even beyond the grave; with priestcraft for his guide, of

course.

Can nature or all existence, fail? and allow the drafts which, on the indisputable testimony of the human passion, she has authorized her highest beings to draw on her, to be protested? Surely, "supernaturalism" itself is less absurd than this.

Friends of human rights! Believers in progress! Is anything more certain, than that combined science and its corresponding art, or full and complete development, must prove adequate to all for which "miracle" can be intelligibly invoked?

Ignorance with respect to this, then; ignorance of how to develop nature's resources, and modify and harmoniously combine her powers, so as to liberate her tendency to perfection from all obstructions-so as that her means will be correspondent to her ends,-constitutes the tyrant in search of whom we started. There he stands! But he is not invulnerable, nor is his fearfully, ay, all but "supernaturally" strong fortress impregnable. Let us "up and at him," then as determinedly as our sires of glorious memory charged his minions at Bunker Hill. Parleying, as we have learned by long, sad experience, is sheer nonsense; quarter being out of the question. This arch enemy of mankind must be annihilated before liberty can be an actuality. And the religious faith of the human race must be transferred from the mysterious and impossible, and from their correlates, the subjective and speculative, to the intelligible and practical. And these must be shown capable of fulfilling man's highest aspirations, before he can truly understand the mission, and fully appreciate the worth of THOMAS PAINE.

I trust I have shown that, to conquer the tyrant which ignorance of how to be free constitutes, was the common aim, and the real, however glimmeringly perceived object, of the exertions of Rosseau, Paine, Comte, and all the other authorheroes and heroines, who have ever written. In conclusion allow me to propose a crisis-question for the practical consultation upon, of my friends, whose religion (if I may be allowed to accuse them of having any) reason and free discussion compose,

How can man be extricated from having to grovel round and round and round in the hopeless orbit which has mystery for its centre, monarchy for his aphelion, demagogism for itsperihelion, and unvarnished wretchedness or gilded misery for its whole course, except by scientifically, artistically, and unitedly creating the requisite conditions for Actual Liberty?

All have their hobby. Mine, it will be pretty clearly perceived is, that nature, through development, will prove allsufficient.

Come, all ye who delight in the amble of that well-tried hack, -popular religious, political, and sociological discussion, and who do not not like the complexion of present religious, political, and social institutions, and who are not enamoured of the millennium which I have shown would constitute their ultimatum:-If you object to Art-Liberty, please to let the world know definitely, what you do propose.

APPENDIX.

As one of the most heroic acts of Thomas Paine's life, and one which also showed the profoundness of his political wis was his speech in opposition to the execution of Louis Vì. [ wish to draw particular attention to it; and therefore give it a place in an Appendix; for I have observed that even the most cursory readers generally look at the end of a work.

This speech, Mr. Paine well understood, would expose him to the fiercest wrath of the Jacobins, who, sustained by the triumphant rabble, had resolved, in the king's case, to dispense with even the forms of "justice," to the extent of setting aside the rule which required the sanction of a two-thirds majority for the infliction of the death penalty. "We vote," protested Lanjuinais, when the balloting was ordered to commence, "under the daggers and the cannon of the factions."

In order to more fully understand in what fearful peril Mr. Paine voluntarily placed himself by delivering this speech, it will be necessary to know that "the factions" to which deputy Lanjuinais referred, were composed of the cruel monsters (and their abettors) who, a short time before, had “ labored," as their horrible, but "disinterested" leader, Maillard, termed it, during thirty-six hours, at massacreing the unarmed prisoners, who had been committed on mere suspicion of not being friendly to the powers that then held sway; and for which " 'labor," its zealous and industrious performers, all covered with blood and brains, demanded instant payment of the committee of the municipality, threatening them with instant death if they did not comply.

"Do you think I have earned only twenty-four francs?" said one of these principled assassins, brandishing a massive weapor "why, I have slain forty with my own hands."

SPEECH OF THOMAS PAINE, AS DEPUTY IN THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF FRANCE, IN OPPOSITION TO

THE EXECUTION OF THE KING.

CITIZEN PRESIDENT:

My hatred and abhorrence of absolute monarchy are sufficiently known; they originated. in principles of reason and conviction, nor, except with life, can they ever be extirpated; but my compassion for the unfortunate, whether friend or enemy, is equally lively and sincere.

I voted that Louis should be tried, because it was necessary to afford proofs to the world of the perfidy, corruption and abomination of the French government.

The infinity of evidence that has been produced exposes them in the most glaring and hideous colors.

Nevertheless I am inclined to believe that if Louis Capet had been born in an obscure condition, had he lived within the circle of an amiable and respectable neighborhood, at liberty to practice the duties of domestic life, had he been thus situated I cannot believe that he would have shown himself destitute of social virtues; we are, in a moment of fermentation like this, naturally little indulgent to his vices, or rather to those of his government; we regard them with additional horror and indignation; not that they are more heinous than those of his predecessors, but because our eyes are now open, and the veil of delusion at length withdrawn; yet the lamentably degraded state to which he is actually reduced is surely far less imputable to him than to the constituent assembly which, of its own authority, without consent or advice of the people, restored him to the throne.

I was present at the time of the flight or abdication of Louis XVI., and when he was taken and brought back. The proposal of restoring to him the supreme power struck me with amazement; and although at that time I was not a citizen, yet as a citizen of the world, I employed all the efforts that depended on me to prevent it.

A small society composed only of five persons, two of whom are now members of the convention, took at that time the name of the Republican Club (Societé Republicaine). This society opposed the restoration of Louis, not so much on account of his personal offences, as in order to overthrow monarchy, and