circulating Erskine's speech on Christianity, but also an anonymous
sermon "On the Existence and Attributes of the Deity," all of which
was from Paine's "Age of Reason," except a brief "Address to the
Deity" appended. This picturesque anomaly was repeated in the
circulation of Paine's "Discourse to the Theophilanthropists" (their
and the author's names removed) under the title of "Atheism Refuted."
Both of these pamphlets are now before me, and beside them a London
tract of one page just sent for my spiritual benefit. This is headed
"A Word of Caution." It begins by mentioning the "pernicious
doctrines of Paine," the first being "that there is No GOD" (sic,)
then proceeds to adduce evidences of divine existence taken from
Paine's works. It should be added that this one dingy page is the
only "survival" of the ancient Paine effigy in the tract form which I
have been able to find in recent years, and to this no Society or
Publisher's name is attached.

The imprisonment of Williams was the beginning of a thirty years' war
for religious liberty in England, in the course of which occurred
many notable events, such as Eaton receiving homage in his pillory at
Choring Cross, and the whole Carlile family imprisoned, -- its head
imprisoned more than nine years for publishing the "Age of Reason."
This last victory of persecution was suicidal. Gentlemen of wealth,
not adherents of Paine, helped in setting Carlile up in business in
Fleet Street, where free-thinking publications have since been sold
without interruption. But though Liberty triumphed in one sense, the
"Age of Reason." remained to some extent suppressed among those whose
attention it especially merited. Its original prosecution by a
Society for the Suppression of Vice (a device to, relieve the Crown)
amounted to a libel upon a morally clean book, restricting its
perusal in families; and the fact that the shilling book sold by and