SOURCE: "Thomas Paine," in Fortnightly Review, Vol. LIV, No. CCCXX, August 1, 1893, pp. 267-81.

In the following essay, Stephen's review of Paine's major works substantiates his contention that Paine argued in a direct and formulaic fashion that emphasized one or two clear-cut hypotheses.

Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States, in a Letter to Francis Wayles Eppes (1821):

You ask my opinion of Ld. Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine. They were alike in making bitter enemies of the priests and Pharisees of their day. Both were honest men; both advocates for human liberty. Paine wrote for a country which permitted him to push his reasoning to whatever length it would go: Ld. Bolingbroke in one restrained by a constitution, and by public opinion. . . . These two persons differed remarkably in the style of their writing, each leaving a model of what is most perfect in both extremes of the simple and...