Her method is to reveal, not to
conceal. She writes the character of man on all he touches, and reveals
it in the very language he would employ to conceal it.

It was this proud spirit which gave Paine that contempt for monarchy
which he so often expressed. "I have an aversion to monarchy," he says,
"as being too debasing to the dignity of man." This is a language which
courtiers could not understand, and they would consider it the vain
babbling of a mad-man; but it is the very basis of that government which
he labored to establish in America and France. This is also the spirit
of Junius when he says with such withering sarcasm: "It may be matter of
curious speculation to consider, if an honest man were permitted to
approach a king, in what terms he would address himself to his
sovereign." And after having gained the ear of the king, when he says:
"Let it be imagined, no matter how improbable, that he has spirit enough
to bid him speak freely and understanding enough to listen to him with
attention. Unacquainted with the vain impertinence of forms, he would
deliver his sentiments with _dignity_ and firmness." Here Junius, also,
fortified with that proud integrity of character which he held in common
with all who would not be enslaved, and which he possessed as the
birthright of man, was free to place the dignity of an honest man in
antithesis to a weak understanding in a king only supported by the vain
impertinence of forms. Paine was too proud to be vain; his pride came up
from nature; it was the pride of human worth, and opposed to that vanity
of art which always makes pretentions to more worth than nature has
conferred. Nature gives us pride, art makes us vain. It was this pride,
in opposition to vanity, which Junius expressed in his great battle
against the usurpations of government, when he says: "Both liberty and
property are precarious unless the possessors have sense and spirit
enough to defend them. This is not the language of vanity. If I am a
vain man my gratification lies within a narrow circle." That is, "to
write for fame and be unknown."

From this pride of character, so strong and peculiar, we may draw no
weak conclusion in regard to the authorship of Junius, for the parallel
is perfect, and the age in which he wrote gave us nothing like it in any
one but Paine. This characteristic gives tone to the whole mind, and a
shade of coloring to every faculty. It reflects itself upon the people,
and draws there