



Produced by David Widger





LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

WRITTEN PURPOSELY TO BIND WITH HIS WRITINGS

By Richard Carlile

SECOND EDITION.

1821.

LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

The present Memoir is not written as a thing altogether necessary,
or what was much wanted, but because it is usual and fitting in all
collections of the writings of the same Author to accompany them with a
brief account of his life; so that the reader might at the same time be
furnished with a key to the Author's mind, principles, and works, as
the best general preface. On such an occasion it does not become the
Compiler to seek after the adulation of friends, or the slander of
enemies; it is equally unnecessary to please or perplex the reader with
either; for when an author has passed the bar of nature, it behoves us
not to listen to any tales about what he was, or what he did, but to
form our judgments of the utility or non-utility of his life, by the
writings he has left behind him. Our business is with the spirit or
immortal part of the man. If his writings be calculated to render
him immortal, we have nothing to do with the body that is earthly and
corruptible, and which passes away into the common mass of regenerating
matter. Whilst the man is living, we are justified in prying into his
actions to see whether his example corresponds with his precept, but
when dead, his writings must stand or fall by the test of reason and its
influence on public opinion.