more than had been done in the first part, it consequently excited an alarm among all those, who, insensible of the burthen of taxes, which the general mass of the people sustain, are living in luxury and indolence, and hunting after court preferments, sinecure places and pensions, either for themselves, or for their family connections. I have shewn in that work, that the taxes may be reduced at least six millions, and even then, the expences of Govern ment in England would be twenty times greater than they are in the country I have already spoken of.-That taxes may be entirely taken off from the poor, by remitting to them in money at the rate of between three and four pounds per head per annum, for the education and bringing up of the children of the poor families, who are computed at one third of the whole nation, and six pounds per annum to all poor persons, decayed tradesmen or others, from the age of fifty until sixty, and ten pounds per annum from after sixty.And that in consequence of this allowance, to be paid out of the surplus taxes, the poor rates would become unnecessary, and that it is better to apply the surplus taxes to these beneficent purposes than to waste them on idle and profligate courtiers, placemen and pensioners. These, gentlemen, are a part of the plans and principles contained in the work, which this meeting is now called upon, in an indirect manner, to vote an address against, and brand with the name of wicked and seditious. But that the work may speak for itself, I request leave to close this part of my letter with an extract therefrom, in the following words: viz." By the operation of this plan the poor laws, "those instruments of civil torture will be superseded, and "the wasteful expence of litigation prevented. The hearts "of the humane will not be shocked by ragged and hungry "children, and persons of seventy and eighty years of age begging for bread. The dying poor will not be dragged "from place to place to breath their last, as a reprisal of "parish upon parish. Widows will have a maintenance "for their children, and not be carted away on the death of "their husbands, like culprits and criminals, and children "will no longer be considered as encreasing the distresses of "their parents.-The haunts of the wretched will be "known, because it will be to their advantage; and the "number of petty crimes, the offspring of poverty and "distress will be lessened. The poor as well as the rich "will then be interested in the support of Government, "and the apprehension of riots and tumults will cease.-Ye "who sit in ease and solace yourselves in plenty, and "such there are in Turkey and Russia, as well as in England; "and who say to yourselves, are we not well off? Have ye "thoughts of these things? When ye do, ye will cease to "speak, and feel for yourselves alone.". Rights of Man, part 2d, page 96. Gentlemen, I have now stated to you such matters as appear necessary to me to offer to the consideration of the meeting. I have no other interest in what I am doing, nor in writing this letter, than the interest of the heart. I consider the proposed address as calculated to give countenance to placemen, pensioners, enormous taxation and corruption. Many of you will recollect, that whilst I resided among you, there was not a man more firm and open in supporting the principles of liberty than myself, and I still pursue, and ever will, the same path. I have, gentlemen, only one request to make, which is that those who have called the meeting will speak out, and say, whether in the address they are going to present against publications, which the proclamation calls wicked, "they mean the work intitled Rights of Man, or whether they do not?" I am, Gentlemen, With sincere wishes for your happiness, Your friend and servant, A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY THOMAS PAINE, AT THE SOCIETY OF THE THEOPHILANTHROPISTS, AT PARIS, 1798. INTRODUCTION, Being a Precise History of the Theophilanthropists, extracted from a collection of their Discourses, Lectures, &c. &c. TOWARDS the month of Vendimiare, of the year 5, (Sept. 1796) there appeared at Paris, a small work, entitled, Manuel of the Theoantropophiles, since called, for the sake of easier pronunciation, Theophilanthropes (Theophilan thropists) published by C. But The worship set forth in this Manuel, of which the origin is from the beginning of the world, was then professed by some families in the silence of domestic life. scarcely was the Manuel published; than some persons, respectable for their knowledge and their manners, saw, in the formation of a society open to the public, an easy method of spreading moral religion, and of leading by degrees, great numbers to the knowledge thereof, who appear to have forgotten it. This consideration ought of itself not to leave indifferent those persons who know that morality and religion, which is the most solid support thereof, are necessary to the maintenance of society as well as to the happiness of the individual. These considerations determined the families of the Theophilanthropists to unite publicly for the exercise of their worship. They "The first society of this kind opened in the month of Nivose, year 5, (Jan. 1797,) in the street Denis, No. 34, corner of Lombard-street. The care of conducting this society was undertaken by five fathers of families. They adopted the Manuel of the Theophilanthropists. agreed to hold their days of public worship on the days corresponding to Sundays, but without making this a hindrance to other societies, to chuse such other day as they thought more convenient. Soon after this, more so cieties were opened, of which some celebrate on the decadi (tenth day) and others on the Sunday. It was also resolved, that the committee should meet one hour each week for the purpose of preparing or examining the discourses and lectures proposed for the next general assembly. That the general assemblies should be called Fetes (festivals) religious and moral. That those festivals should be conducted in principle and form, in a manner not to be considered as the festivals of an exclusive worship; and that in recalling those who might not be attached to any particular worship, those festivals might also be attended as moral exercises by disciples of every sect, and consequently avoid, by scrupulous care, every thing that might make the society appear under the name of a sect. The society adopts neither rites nor priesthood, and it will never lose sight of the resolution not to advance any thing as a society inconvenient to any sect or sects, in any time or country, and under any government. It will be seen that it is so much the more easy for the society to keep within this circle, because, that the dogmas of the Theophilanthropists are those upon which all the sects have agreed, that their moral is that upon which there has never been the least dissent; and that the name they have taken expresses the double end of all the sects, that of leading to the adoration of God and love of man. "The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves the disciples of such or such a man. They avail themselves of the wise precepts that have been transmitted by writers of all countries and in all ages. The reader will find in the discourses, lectures, hymns, and canticles, which the Theophilanthropists have adopted for their religious and moral festivals, and which they present under the title of Armée Religieuse, extracts from moralists, ancient and modern, divested of maxims too severe, or too loosely conceived, or contrary to piety, whether towards God or towards man." Next follow the dogmas of the Theophilanthropists or things they profess to believe. These are but two, and are thus expressed, les Theophilanthropes croient à l'existence de dieu et a l'immortalite de l'ame. The Theophilanthropists believe in the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. The manuel of the Theophilanthropists, a small volume of sixty pages, duodecimo, is published separately, as is also their catechism, which is of the same size. The principles of the Theophilanthropists are the same as those published in the first part of the Age of Reason in 1793, and in the second part in 1795. The Theophilanthropists as a society are silent upon all the things they do not profess to believe, as the sacredness of the books called the bible, &c. &c. They profess the immortality of the soul, but they are silent on the immortality of the body, or that which the church calls the resurrection. The author of the Age of Reason gives reasons for every thing he disbelieves as well as for those he believes; and where this cannot be done with safety, the government is a despotism, and the church an inquisition. It is more than three years since the first part of the Age of Reason was published, and more than a year and half since the publication of the second part. The bishop of Landaff undertook to write an answer to the second part; and it was not till after it was known that the author of the Age of Reason would reply to the bishop, that the prosecution against the book was set on foot; and which is said to be carried on by some clergy of the English church. If the bishop is one of them, and the object be to prevent an exposure of the numerous and gross errors he has committed in his work (and which he wrote when report said that Thomas Paine was dead) it is a confession that he feels the weakness of his cause, and finds himself unable to maintain it. In this case, he has given me a triumph I did not seek, and Mr. Erskine, the herald of the prosecution, has proclaimed it,* THOMAS PAINE. Mr. Erskine, a short time previous to the publication of this, had pleaded as counsel against Williams for publishing the Age of Reason, |