I  have  done  with  Europe  and  its  slavish  politics."  He  gave  his
visitor  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter  to  read,  and  said  he  meant  soon  to
avail  himself  of  its  offer.  "  It  would  be  a  curious  circumstance,"  he
added,  laughing,  "  if  I  should  hereafter  be  sent  as  secretary  of
legation  to  the  English  Court  which  outlawed  me.  What  a  hubbub
it  would  create  at  the  king's  levee  to  see  Tom  Paine  presented  by
the  American  ambassador!  All  the  bishops  and  women  vjrould
faint  away."  His  guest  frankly  told  him  that  the  course  of  events
had  caused  him  to  change  his  principles.  Paine's  answer  was,
"  You  certainly  have  the  right  to  do  so,  but  you  cannot  alter  the
nature  of  things.  The  French  have  alarmed  all  honest  men ;  but,
still,  truth  is  truth."

Poor  Paine !  His  errors  were,  for  the  most  part,  those  of  his  age  ;
and  they  were  aggravated  by  his  circumstances,  his  defective  educa-
tion, and  the  ardor  of^is  temperament.  But  his  merits,  which  were
real  and  not  small,  were  peculiarly  his  own.  He  loved  the  truth  for
its  own  sake  ;  and  he  stood  by  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  truth
when  all  the  world  around  him  reviled  it.  That  hasty  pamphlet  of
bis  which  he  named  The  Age  of  Keason,  written  to  alleviate  the
tedium  of  his  Paris  prison,  differs  from  other  deistical  works  only  in
being  bolder  and  honester.     It  contains  not  a  position  which  Frank-


592  UFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFBBSOK.
