the hotel of Madame de Pompadour), and it would appear, by his
account, that it was after the execution (October 31, 1793) Of his
friends the Girondins, and political comrades, that he felt his end
at hand, and set about his last literary bequest to the world, --
"The Age of Reason," -- in the state in which it has since appeared,
as he is careful to say. There was every probability, during the
months in which he wrote (November and December 1793) that he would
be executed. His religious testament was prepared with the blade of
the guillotine suspended over him, -- a fact which did not deter
pious mythologists from portraying his death-bed remorse for having
written the book.

In editing Part I. of "The Age of Reason," I follow closely the first
edition, which was printed by Barrois in Paris from the manuscript,
no doubt under the superintendence of Joel Barlow, to whom Paine, on
his way to the Luxembourg, had confided it. Barlow was an American
ex-clergyman, a speculator on whose career French archives cast an
unfavorable light, and one cannot be certain that no liberties were
taken with Paine's proofs.

I may repeat here what I have stated in the outset of my editorial
work on Paine that my rule is to correct obvious misprints, and also
any punctuation which seems to render the sense less clear. And to
that I will now add that in following Paine's quotations from the
Bible I have adopted the Plan now generally used in place of his
occasionally too extended writing out of book, chapter, and verse.

Paine was imprisoned in the Luxembourg on December 28, 1793, and
released on November 4, 1794. His liberation was secured by his old
friend, James Monroe (afterwards President), who had succeeded his