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Thomas Paine complete in all his character as one of the most benevolent and disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and the greatest breadth of thought; if this piece of biography should analyze his literary labours, and rank him as he ought to be ranked among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries of the age in which he has lived-yet with a mind assailable by flattery, and receiving through that weak side a tincture of vanity which he was too proud to conceal; with a mind, though strong enough to bear him up, and to rise elastic under the heaviest load of oppression, yet unable to endure the contempt of his former friends and fellow labourers, the rulers of the country that had received his first and greatest services,-a mind incapable of looking down with serene compassion, as it ought, on the rude scoffs of their imitators, a new generation that knows him not; a mind that shrinks from their society, and unhappily seeks refuge in low company, or looks for consolation in the sordid, solitary bottle, till it sinks at last so far below its native elevation as to lose all respect for itself, and to forfeit that of his best friends, disposing these friends almost to join with his enemies, and wish, though from different motives, that he would haste to hide himself in

the grave if you are disposed and prepared to write his life, thus entire, to fill up the picture to which these hasty strokes of outline give but a rude sketch with great vacuities, your book may be a useful one for another age, but it will not be relished; nor scarcely tolerated in this.

The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his methematical acquirements, and his machanical genius. His invention of the iron bridge, which led him to Europe in the year 1787, has procured him a great reputation in that branch of science, in France and England, in both which countries his bridge has been adopted in many instances, and is now much in

use.

You ask whether he took an oath of allegiance to France. Doubtless, the qualification to be a member of the Convention required an oath of fidelity to that country, but involved in it no abjuration of his fidelity to this. He was made a French citizen by the same decree with Washington, Hamilton, Priestley, and Sir James Mackintosh.

What Mr. M has told you relative to the circumstances of his arrestation by order of Robespierre, is erroneous, at least in one point. Paine did not lodge at the house where he was arrested, but had been dining there

with some Americans, of whom Mr. M may have been one. I never heard before, that Paine was intoxicated that night. Indeed, the officers brought him directly to my house, which was two miles from his lodgings, and about as much from the place where he had been dining. He was not intoxicated when they came to me. Their object was to get me to go and assist them to examine Paine's papers. It employed us the rest of that night, and the whole of the next day at Paine's lodgings; and he was not committed to prison till the next evening.

You ask what company he kept-he always frequented the best, both in England and France, till he became the object of calumny in certain American papers, (echoes of the English court papers) for his adherence to what he thought the cause of liberty in France, till he conceived himself neglected and despised by his former friends in the United States. From that moment he gave himself very much to drink, and, consequently, to companions less worthy of his better days.

It is said he was always a peevish inmate—this is possible. So was Laurence Sterne, so was Torquato Tasso, so was J. J. Rousseau ;-but Thomas Paine, as a visiting acquaintance and as a literary friend, the only points of view in

which I knew him, was one of the most instructive men lever have known. He had a surprising memory and brilliant fancy; his mind was a storehouse of facts and useful observations; he was full of lively anecdote, and ingenious original, pertinent remark upon almost every subject.

He was always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a sure protector and friend to all Americans in distress that he found in foreign countries. And he had frequent occasions to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolution in France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, and his entire devotion to what he conceived to be the best interest and happiness of mankind.*

This, Sir, is all I have to remark on the subject you mention;-now I have only one request to make, and that would doubtless seem impertinent, were you not the editor of a newspaper; it is, that you will not publish my letter, nor permit a copy of it to be taken. I am, Sir, &c.

Kalorama, August 11, 1809.

JOEL BARLOW.

* Mr. Barlow might have added, in regard to Mr. Paine's religion, that as it was the religion of most of the men of science of the present age, and probably of three-fourths of those of the last, there could be no just reason for making it an exception in his character.

The people of the State of New York, by the Grace of God, free and independent, to all to whom these presents shall come or may concern, send greeting:

Know ye, that the annexed is a true copy of the will of Thomas Paine, deceased, as recorded in the office of our surrogate, in and for the city and county of New York. In testimony whereof, we have caused the seal of said office of our surrogate to be hereunto affixed.Witness, Silvanus Miller, Esq. surrogate of said county, at the city of New York, the twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine, and of our Independence the thirty-fourth.

SILVANUS MILLER.

THE last will and testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator God, and in no other being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other. I Thomas Paine, of the State of New York, author of the work entitled Common Sense, written in Philadelphia in 1775, and published in that city the beginning of January 1776, which awoke America to a Declaration of Independence on the fourth of July following, which was as fast

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