without regard to names, and as directing itself from the universal
family of mankind to the 'Divine object of all adoration, it is man
bringing to his Maker the fruits of his heart; and though those
fruits may differ from each other like the fruits of the earth, the
grateful tribute of every one, is accepted." ("Rights of Man." See my
edition of Paine's Writings, ii., p. 326.) Here we have a
reappearance of George Fox confuting the doctor in America who
"denied the light and Spirit of God to be in every one; and affirmed
that it was not in the Indians. Whereupon I called an Indian to us,
and asked him 'whether or not, when he lied, or did wrong to anyone,
there was not something in him that reproved him for it?' He said,
'There was such a thing in him that did so reprove him; and he was
ashamed when he had done wrong, or spoken wrong.' So we shamed the
doctor before the governor and the people." (Journal of George Fox,
September 1672.)

Paine, who coined the phrase "Religion of Humanity" (The Crisis, vii.,
1778), did but logically defend it in "The Age of Reason," by denying
a special revelation to any particular tribe, or divine authority in
any particular creed of church; and the centenary of this much-abused
publication has been celebrated by a great conservative champion of
Church and State, Mr. Balfour, who, in his "Foundations of Belief,"
affirms that "inspiration" cannot be denied to the great Oriental
teachers, unless grapes may be gathered from thorns.

The centenary of the complete publication of "The Age of Reason,"
(October 25, 1795), was also celebrated at the Church Congress,
Norwich, on October 10, 1895, when Professor Bonney, F.R.S., Canon of
Manchester, read a paper in which he said: "I cannot deny that the
increase of scientific knowledge has deprived parts of the earlier