amely, that Paine "sold himself to the highest bidder." Let us
examine the last charge first. The critic curiously contradicts himself.
Paine, he admits, could "sometimes write as pointedly as Junius or
Cobbett," whose works sold enormously, and he had the art of devising
happy titles for his productions; yet, although he sold himself to the
highest bidder, he could be bought at a very low price! The fact is,
Paine was never bought at all. His was not a hireling pen. Whatever he
wrote he put his name to, and he never parted with the copyright of any
of his works, lest the Government or some friend of despotism should
procure their suppression. He also published his writings at a
ridiculously low price, so low indeed that he lost by them instead of
gaining. Of his "Common Sense," that fine pamphlet which stirred the
American colonists to battle against their oppressors, not less than a
hundred thousand copies were sold; yet he found himself finally indebted
to his printer L29 12s. 1d. Fifteen years later the English Government
tried through the publisher to get the copyright of the "Rights of Man;"
but though a large sum was offered, Paine refused on principle to let it
pass out of his own hands. The first part of this work was published
at a price which precluded any chance of profit; the publication of
the second part caused him to be tried and condemned for treason, the
penalty of the law being escaped only by flight. All publication of his
works, whether political or religious, was afterwards illegal. Thousands
of copies were circulated surreptitiously, or openly by men like Richard
Carlile, who spent nine years in prison for his sale of prohibited
books. But clearly Paine could derive no profit from this traffic in
his works, for he never set foot in England again. Thomas Paine wrote
in order to spread his political and religious views, and for no other
purpose. He was not a professional author, nor a professional critic,
and never needed payment for his literary work. And assuredly he got
none. Let the _Athenaeum_ critic inform the world to whom Paine sold
himself, or who ever paid him a penny for his writings. Until he does so
we shall believe that the author of "Common Sense," the "Rights of Man,"
and the "Age of Reason," was honest in saying: "In a great affair, where
the good of mankind is at stake, I love to work for nothing; and so
fully am I under the influence of this principle, that I should lose
the spirit,