sweeten the vacancy of business! We enjoy the harmless luxury without surfeiting, and strengthen the spirits by relaxing them.

The press has not only a great influence over our manners and morals, but contributes largely to our pleasures; and a magazine when properly enriched, is very conveniently calculated for this purpose. Volumnious works weary the patience, but here we are invited by conciseness and variety. As I have formerly received much pleasure from perusing these kind of publications, I wish the present success; and have no doubt of seeing a proper diversity blended so agreeably together, as to furnish out an olio worthy of the company for whom it is designed.

I consider a magazine as a kind of bee-hive, which both allures the swarm, and provides room to store their sweets. Its division into cells, gives every bee a province of its own; and though they all produce honey, yet perhaps they differ in their taste for flowers, and extract with greater dexterity from one than from another. Thus, we are not all philosophers, all artists, nor all poets.

DEAR FRIEND,

TO ELIHU PALMER.

Paris, February 21, 1802, since the Fable of Christ.

I received, by Mr. Livingston, the letter you wrote to me, and the excellent work [the Principles of Nature] you have published. I see you have thought deeply on the subject, and expressed your thoughts in a strong and clear style. The hinting and intimating manner of writing that was formerly used on subjects of this kind, produced skepticism, but not conviction. It is necessary to be bold. Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it. Say a bold thing that will stagger them, and they will begin to think.

There is an intimate friend of mine, Colonel Joseph Kirkbridge of Bordentown, New Jersey, to whom I would wish you to send your work. He is an excellent man, and perfectly in our sentiments. You can send it by the stage that goes partly by land and partly by water, between New York and Philadelphia, and passes through Bordentown.

I expect to arrive in America in May next. I have a third part of the Age of Reason to publish when I arrive, which, if I mistake not, will make a stronger impression than any thing I have yet published on the subject.

I write this by an ancient colleague of mine in the French Convention, the citizen Lequinio, who is going Consul to Rhode Island, and who waits while I write.

Yours in friendship,

THOMAS PAINE.

THOMAS PAINE AT 70.

[From Travels in the U. S. of America in 1806, 7, and 9, 10, and 11, by John Mellish.]

I continued in New York, transacting various mercantile business, until the 25th of September; during which time I again called on Thomas Paine, in company with his friend, formerly mentioned. Paine was still at the house of Mrs. Palmer, but his leg had got much better, and he was in good spirits. News had arrived that morning that peace had been concluded between France and England; but Paine said, he did not believe it; and again affirmed, that while the present form of government lasted in England, there would be no peace. The government was committed in a war system, and would prosecute it as long as they could command

the means. He then turned up a newspaper, which had recently been established at New York, and, after reading several paragraphs, he ob served that he could not understand what the editor was driving at. He pretended to be a great friend of Britain, and yet he was constantly writing against peace, and the best interests of the country; and in place of being guided by the plain dictates of common sense, he aimed at flowery, embellished language, and glided away into the airy regions of speculative nonsense, more like a madman than the editor of a newspaper. After a good deal of general conversation, we took our leave.

A few days after this, his friend handed me a piece in MS., intended for the newspapers; and requested me to copy it, and keep the original; and as Paine has made a great noise in the world, I shall here insert it, as a relic of an extraordinary political character, and as a very good specimen of the acuteness of his mind, and his turn for wit, at the advanced age of 70.

FOR THE CITIZEN.

"It must be a great consolation to poor Mr. -'s friends, if he has any, to hear that his insanity increases beyond all hopes of a recovery. His case is truly pitiable; he works hard at the trade of mischief-making; but he is not a good hand at it, for the case is, the more he labors, the more he is laughed at, and his malady increases with every laugh.

"In his paper of Thursday, September 18th, the spirit of prophecy seizes him, and he leaps from the earth, gets astride of a cloud, and predicts universal darkness to the inhabitants of this lower world.

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Speaking of the rumors of peace between France and England, he says, we will not believe it till we see it gazetted (meaning in the London Gazette), and then,' says he,' we will aver, that the sun which dawns upon that event will be the darkest that ever rose since the transgression of our first parents brought sin into the world.' This is the first time we ever heard of the sun shining darkness. But darkness or light, sense or nonsense, sunshine or moonshine, are all alike to a lunatic. He then goes on: 'In a continuance,' says he, of war only can Britain look for salvation. That star once distinguished, all will be darkness and eternal night over the face of the creation.' The devil it will! And pray,

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Mr. will the moon shine darkness too? and will all the stars twinkle darkness? If that should be the case, you had better sell your press, and set up tallow-chandler There will be more demand for candles than for newspapers, when those dark days

come.

"But as you are a man that write for a livelihood, and I suppose you find it hard work to rub on, I would advise you, as a friend, not to lay out all your cash upon candle-making, for my opinion is, that, whether England make peace or not, or whether she is conquered or not conquered, the sun will rise as glorious, and shine as bright on that day, as if no such trifling things had happened."

It appeared in the sequel, that Paine was correct in his opinion, and the editor was gratified in his wish-thore was no peace.