and had too much faith in man to judge
correctly of his actions. Yet character he scarcely ever misjudged. As
for courage, he dared to do any thing that was right. He dared to think
like a philosopher, and to act like a man. Intellectually he was a
prodigy; and as for _genius_, under which I combine the constructive,
analytic and imaginative faculties the world has never seen his equal.
He was, in short, an artist, inventor, scholar, poet, philosopher, enemy
and friend. These mental characteristics were so combined and regulated
by his will, that nature could never repeat what she produced in Thomas
Paine.

I have faithfully followed the lines of nature in this criticism, and
have endeavored to produce a work which the student and statesman can
study with profit; which the lawyer may consider as an argument; which
will arrest the attention of the historian, and present new themes to
the mind of the philosopher; one which will open up a new method for the
critic, and in all these a work which the scholar will not despise. This
I say without vanity. Mine indeed are humble labors; and my work,
whatever it is, has not been laborious and artful, but easy and natural.

I have not written this to make proselytes to his religion, but to do a
much injured man a good service. Yet, as hero-worship is a part of man's
nature, it may not be improbable that one age will extol what a
previous one reviled, and a temple be erected to the religion of a man
who was once thought to be a devil. This reminds me of a story which
long ago I remember of reading in a volume of the Letters of the Turkish
Spy; and as I quote from memory I will give only the substance:

Two hundred years ago, somewhere in Spain, in front of a Christian house
of worship, stood a statue. This was the black image of a man sitting on
an ass. As each pious devotee passed in to worship, or came out
therefrom, he spat upon the statue. But a Mussulman embassador coming
from the king of Morocco, observing these rites, which he was told had
been performed for centuries, asked the king why they treated this image
with such insult. He was told it was the image of Mahomet. The follower
of Mahomet, being better informed, replied: This can not be, for Mahomet
rode always on camels, and it was Jesus Christ who, it is recorded, rode
on an ass. This fact was soon confirmed by the priests, and thereupon
the people took to kissing and worshiping what they had before
insultingly spat