ought to trial, and the king
deposed. He called for a leader in vain--he wrote against fate. But the
work must go on. He consecrates himself anew to the cause; he dedicates
his life to the good of man. Friend, kindred, wife, and the dear, native
land, weigh lightly in the balance against the "_business of a world_."
He leaves them all. His mind has been liberated from the prejudices of
an island by the study of astronomy, and a life on the sea, and schooled
by disappointment in political strife, he turns his face to the _West_.

He has left his second wife; parted with her forever. Mr. Paine was a
man of strong personal attachment; he had deep and lasting affection.
But what was wife to the "_business of a world_." Long after this
separation, in his old age, after he had gone through two revolutions,
the American and the French, Mrs. Paine, though not agreeing with Thomas
in religious opinions, on hearing him disrespectfully spoken of because
he had written the Age of Reason, indignantly left the company of his
revilers. And Mr. Paine, when asked why did you leave your wife, would
respond: "I had a cause; it is no business of any body." True to her
during life, and she to him, there is more in this than has been
revealed.

But before he leaves England there is a definite plan formed, it is
revolution and reconciliation; but if not reconciliation, it is
revolution and independence. Tyranny shall be destroyed at all hazards.
He prepares himself for war, "and if the English Government wins in the
contest," says Paine, "she wins from me my life." He leaves all his
world's goods for the support of his wife, his capital stock is his pen.
Franklin understands it all. He knows full well this son of a Quaker,
this Junius of the quill, and he feels the need of him for America's
sake, and that scientific head of his thinks soundly on the work which
shall tell for the ages. Franklin was then acknowledged to be the
greatest man in the world, as he was; and the same judgment which never
led him wrong, and which made for him renown, pronounced also on the
character and abilities of Thomas Paine. These two men perfectly agreed
in politics and religion, and this covers the whole realm of opinion.
Their origin and their leading traits of character were the same;
secretive, cautious, courageous, and proud of heart, witty and
sarcastic, deeply read in the history of the world and of the human
heart, having come out of the loins of toil an