on of it, has been jocularly accused of
praising his own work. To free him from this embarrassment, and to save
him the repeated trouble of mentioning the author, as he has not failed
to do, I make no hesitation in saying, I drew up the publication in
question," etc.--Rights of Man, note.

This is sufficient to show a trait of character which made Junius, as a
secret, a success. Without this strong ruling passion there could have
been no Junius to spring like a tiger upon king and court. But, if it
can be shown in any mental characteristic that Mr. Paine is incompatible
with that character which is stamped upon Junius and made him a success,
I will surrender the argument.

Mr. Paine says, as Horne Tooke had not failed to declare him the author,
he then acknowledged it as his own. Had Mr. Tooke been silent, you may
well be assured Mr. Paine would never have divulged it to friend or foe
of either. Since Mr. Paine above has used the expression, "Jocularly
accused of praising his own work," the reader will not fail to remember
the same characteristic in Junius, when he says of Philo Junius, and who
was also the real Junius himself, that "the subordinate character was
never guilty of the indecorum of praising his principal." This again
reminds us of Mr. Paine, when speaking of that passage in Numbers: "Now
the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were on the face of
the earth." Paine bluntly responds: "If Moses said this of himself,
instead of being the meekest of men, he was one of the most vain and
arrogant of coxcombs."

* * * * *

I now call attention to the fact that Mr. Paine and Junius, when
attacking the private character of men, both seem to delight, when the
fact would fit, in charging bastardy:

_Paine._

"A French _bastard_, landing with an armed
banditti, and establishing himself king of England
against the consent of the natives, is, in plain
terms, a very paltry rascally original. It
certainty hath no divinity in it."--Common Sense.

_Junius._

Speaking of the Duke of Grafton's ancestors:

"Those of your grace, for instance, left no
distressing examples of virtue, even to their
_legitimate_ posterity; and you may look back with
pleasure to an illustrious pedigree, in which
heraldry has not left a single good quality upon