lace,
is a charming virtue, and the grace of all other virtues. But it is
sometimes the worst enemy they have. Let him whose print I gave you the
other day be engraved in your memory! Had it pleased Providence to have
spared him for the trying situations that seem to be coming on,
notwithstanding that he was sometimes a little dispirited by the
disposition which we thought shown to depress him and set him aside, yet
he was always buoyed up again; and on one or two occasions he discovered
what might be expected from the vigor and elevation of his mind, from
his unconquerable fortitude, and from the extent of his resources for
every purpose of speculation and of action. Remember him, my friend, who
in the highest degree honored and respected you; and remember that great
parts are a great trust. Remember, too, that mistaken or misapplied
virtues, if they are not as pernicious as vice, frustrate at least their
own natural tendencies, and disappoint the purposes of the Great Giver.

Adieu. My dreams are finished.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Mr. Paine is a Norfolk man, from Thetford.

THOUGHTS AND DETAILS

ON

SCARCITY.

ORIGINALLY PRESENTED

TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT,

IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER,

1795.

THOUGHTS AND DETAILS

ON

SCARCITY.

Of all things, an indiscreet tampering with the trade of provisions is
the most dangerous, and it is always worst in the time when men are most
disposed to it,--that is, in the time of scarcity; because there is
nothing on which the passions of men are so violent, and their judgment
so weak, and on which there exists such a multitude of ill-founded
popular prejudices.

The great use of government is as a restraint; and there is no restraint
which it ought to put upon others, and upon itself too, rather than that
which is imposed on the fury of speculating under circumstances of
irritation. The number of idle tales spread about by the industry of
faction and by the zeal of foolish good-intention, and greedily devoured
by the malignant credulity of mankind, tends infinitely to aggravate
prejudices which in themselves are more than sufficiently strong. In
that state of affairs, and of the public with relation to them, the
first thing that government owes to us, the people, is _information_;
the next is timely coercion: the one to guide our judgment; the other to
regulate our tempers.

To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government.
It w