![]() ![]() ![]() In addition, Paine, who had never been extremely fastidious about his dress or his appearance, was by many accounts running rather drastically to seed. ![]() Some may have felt the book to be irreligious, which it plainly was not, but others may have felt, again, that if this was the way Paine truly felt about the Bible he should have said so earlier, rather than using it as a textual prop when it suited him. He also sacrificed many former comrades by his publication of The Age of Reason. There may have been grounds for his believing this, but he went on to say that Washington had been of little use in the original revolutionary war, which was an opinion he might more bravely or consistently have advanced at the time. He was determined to get even with his former hero, George Washington, for example, who he felt had abandoned him in his time of need in Robespierre's terrorised Paris. To be sure, Paine had isolated himself and alienated many old friends. ![]() This, like most half-truths, is not 50 per cent true so much as it is quite misleading. It is commonly believed that Thomas Paine's last years in America were a time of squalor and bitterness and decline, eventuating in a pauper's grave and in the total eclipse of his reputation. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |