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قراءة كتاب The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of Reason
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The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of Reason
THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE
THE AGE OF REASON - PART I and II
By Thomas Paine
Collected And Edited By Moncure Daniel Conway
VOLUME IV.
(1796)
CONTENTS
THE AGE OF REASON
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTIONCHAPTER I - THE AUTHOR'S PROFESSION OF FAITH.
CHAPTER II - OF MISSIONS AND REVELATIONS.
CHAPTER III - CONCERNING THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST, AND HIS HISTORY.
CHAPTER IV - OF THE BASES OF CHRISTIANITY.
CHAPTER V - EXAMINATION IN DETAIL OF THE PRECEDING BASES.
CHAPTER VI - OF THE TRUE THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER VII - EXAMINATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
CHAPTER VIII - OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
CHAPTER IX - IN WHAT THE TRUE REVELATION CONSISTS.
CHAPTER X - CONCERNING GOD, AND THE LIGHTS CAST ON HIS EXISTENCE
CHAPTER XI - OF THE THEOLOGY OF THE CHRISTIANS; AND THE TRUE THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER XII - THE EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANISM ON EDUCATION; PROPOSED
CHAPTER XIII - COMPARISON OF CHRISTIANISM WITH THE RELIGIOUS IDEAS
CHAPTER XIV - SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE.
CHAPTER XV - ADVANTAGES OF THE EXISTENCE OF MANY WORLDS IN EACH SOLAR
CHAPTER XVI - APPLICATION OF THE PRECEDING TO THE SYSTEM OF THE
CHAPTER XVII - OF THE MEANS EMPLOYED IN ALL TIME, AND ALMOST
THE AGE OF REASON - PART II
PREFACE
THE AGE OF REASON
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
WITH SOME RESULTS OF RECENT RESEARCHES.
IN the opening year, 1793, when revolutionary France had beheaded its king, the wrath turned next upon the King of kings, by whose grace every tyrant claimed to reign. But eventualities had brought among them a great English and American heart—Thomas Paine. He had pleaded for Louis Caper—"Kill the king but spare the man." Now he pleaded,—"Disbelieve in the King of kings, but do not confuse with that idol the Father of Mankind!"
In Paine's Preface to the Second Part of "The Age of Reason" he describes himself as writing the First Part near the close of the year 1793. "I had not finished it more than six hours, in the state it has since appeared, before a guard came about three in the morning, with an order signed by the two Committees of Public Safety and Surety General, for putting me in arrestation." This was on the morning of December 28. But it is necessary to weigh the words just quoted—"in the state it has since appeared." For on August 5, 1794, Francois Lanthenas, in an appeal for Paine's liberation, wrote as follows: "I deliver to Merlin de Thionville a copy of the last work of T. Payne [The Age of Reason], formerly our colleague, and in custody since the decree excluding foreigners from the national representation. This book was written by the author in the beginning of the year '93 (old style). I undertook its translation before the revolution against priests, and it was published in French about the same time. Couthon, to whom I sent it, seemed offended with me for having translated this work."
Under the frown of Couthon, one of the most atrocious colleagues of Robespierre, this early publication seems to have been so effectually suppressed that no copy bearing that date, 1793, can be found in France or elsewhere. In Paine's letter to Samuel Adams, printed in the present volume, he says that he had it translated into French, to stay the progress of atheism, and that he endangered his life "by opposing atheism." The time indicated by Lanthenas as that in which he submitted the work to Couthon would appear to be the latter part of March, 1793, the fury against the priesthood