PART II.

An Examination of the Declaration of Independence 201

Analysis 227

Argument 229

Style 234

Special Characteristics 242

Grand Outlines of Thomas Paines Life 279

Conclusion 320

APPENDIX 323

PREFACE.

One hundred years ago to-day, Junius wrote as follows:

"The man who fairly and completely answers this argument, shall have my thanks and my applause.... Grateful as I am to the good Being whose bounty has imparted to me this reasoning intellect, whatever it is, I hold myself proportionably indebted to him from whose enlightened understanding another ray of knowledge communicates to mine. But neither should I think the most exalted faculties of the human mind a gift worthy of the Divinity, nor any assistance in the improvement of them a subject of gratitude to my fellow-creatures, if I were not satisfied that really to inform the understanding corrects and enlarges the heart."

These were the concluding words of his last Letter. So say I now, and I make them the preface to an argument which now sets the great apostle of liberty right before the world. They serve, like a literary hyphen, to connect the two ages--his own with this; and the two lives--the masked with the open one; in both of which ages and lives he did good to mankind, and that mightily.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _January 21, 1872_.