hing it, prevented this. But some of the seed sown
by the audacious hand of Paine were now budding in leading minds."

A Republican Club was formed in July, consisting of five members, the
others who joined themselves to Paine and Duchatelet being Condorcet,
and probably Lanthenas (translator of Paine's works), and Nicolas de
Bonneville. They advanced so far as to print "Le Republicain," of which,
however, only one number ever appeared. From it is taken the second
piece in this volume.

Early in the year 1792 Paine lodged in the house and book-shop of Thomas
"Clio" Rickman, now as then 7 Upper Marylebone Street. Among his friends
was the mystical artist and poet, William Blake. Paine had become to
him a transcendental type; he is one of the Seven who appear in Blake's
"Prophecy" concerning America (1793):

"The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent
Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore;
Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night:--
Washington, Franklin, Paine, and Warren, Gates, Hancock, and Greene,
Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albion's fiery Prince."

The Seven are wrapt in the flames of their enthusiasm. Albion's Prince
sends to America his thirteen Angels, who, however, there become
Governors of the thirteen States. It is difficult to discover from
Blake's mystical visions how much political radicalism was in him, but
he certainly saved Paine from the scaffold by forewarning him (September
13, 1792) that an order had been issued for his arrest. Without
repeating the story told in Gilchrist's "Life of Blake," and in my "Life
of Paine," I may add here my belief that Paine also appears in one of
Blake's pictures. The picture is in the National Gallery (London), and
called "The spiritual form of Pitt guiding Behemoth." The monster jaws
of Behemoth are full of struggling men, some of whom stretch imploring
hands to another spiritual form, who reaches down from a crescent
moon in the sky, as if to rescue them. This face and form appear to me
certainly meant for Paine.

Acting on Blake's warning Paine's friends got him off to Dover, where,
after some trouble, related in a letter to Dundas (see p. 41 of this
volume), he reached Calais. He had been elected by four departments to
the National Convention, and selected Calais, where he was welcomed
with grand civic parades. On September 19, 1792, he arrived in Paris,
stopping at "White's Hotel," 7