The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. - HTML preview

PLEASE NOTE: This is an HTML preview only and some elements such as links or page numbers may be incorrect.
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.

was the first work he ever published the notion that he was "Junius" still finds some

believers. An indirect comment on our Paine-Junians may be found in Part 2 of this

work where Paine says a man capable of writing Homer "would not have thrown

away his own fame by giving it to another." It is probable that Paine ascribed the Let-

ters of Junius to Thomas Hollis. His friend F. Lanthenas, in his translation of the Age

of Reason (1794) advertises his translation of the Letters of Junius from the English

"(Thomas Hollis)." This he could hardly have done without consultation with Paine.

Unfortunately this translation of Junius cannot be found either in the Bibliotheque

Nationale or the British Museum, and it cannot be said whether it contains any at-

tempt at an identification of Junius-—Editor.

44

the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by

conception. Thus much for the introductory part.

From the time I was capable of conceiving an idea, and acting upon it

by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the christian system, or

thought it to be a strange affair; I scarcely knew which it was: but I well remember, when about seven or eight years of age, hearing a sermon

read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the church, upon

the subject of what is called Redemption by the death of the Son of God. After the sermon was ended, I went into the garden, and as I was going down

the garden steps (for I perfectly recollect the spot) I revolted at the recollection of what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was making

God Almighty act like a passionate man, that killed his son, when he

could not revenge himself any other way; and as I was sure a man would

be hanged that did such a thing, I could not see for what purpose they

preached such sermons. This was not one of those kind of thoughts that

had any thing in it of childish levity; it was to me a serious reflection, arising from the idea I had that God was too good to do such an action,

and also too almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in the same manner to this moment; and I moreover believe, that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child,

cannot be a true system.

It seems as if parents of the christian profession were ashamed to tell

their children any thing about the principles of their religion. They sometimes instruct them in morals, and talk to them of the goodness of what

they call Providence; for the Christian mythology has five deities: there is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the God Providence,

and the Goddess Nature. But the christian story of God the Father put-

ting his son to death, or employing people to do it, (for that is the plain language of the story,) cannot be told by a parent to a child; and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better, is making the

story still worse; as if mankind could be improved by the example of

murder; and to tell him that all this is a mystery, is only making an ex-

cuse for the incredibility of it.

How different is this to the pure and simple profession of Deism! The

true deist has but one Deity; and his religion consists in contemplating

the power, wisdom, and benignity of the Deity in his works, and in en-

deavouring to imitate him in every thing moral, scientifical, and

mechanical.

The religion that approaches the nearest of all others to true Deism, in

the moral and benign part thereof, is that professed by the quakers: but

45

they have contracted themselves too much by leaving the works of God

out of their system. Though I reverence their philanthropy, I can not help smiling at the conceit, that if the taste of a quaker could have been consulted at the creation, what a silent and drab-colored creation it would

have been! Not a flower would have blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird

been permitted to sing.

Quitting these reflections, I proceed to other matters. After I had made

myself master of the use of the globes, and of the orrery,14 and conceived an idea of the infinity of space, and of the eternal divisibility of matter, and obtained, at least, a general knowledge of what was called natural

philosophy, I began to compare, or, as I have before said, to confront, the internal evidence those things afford with the christian system of faith.

Though it is not a direct article of the christian system that this world that we inhabit is the whole of the habitable creation, yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic account of the creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of that story, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwise, that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars,

renders the christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous; and

scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs can not be held together in the same mind; and he who thinks that be believes both,

has thought but little of either.

Though the belief of a plurality of worlds was familiar to the ancients,

it is only within the last three centuries that the extent and dimensions of this globe that we inhabit have been ascertained. Several vessels, following the tract of the ocean, have sailed entirely round the world, as a man may march in a circle, and come round by the contrary side of the circle

to the spot he set out from. The circular dimensions of our world, in the widest part, as a man would measure the widest round of an apple, or a

ball, is only twenty-five thousand and twenty English miles, reckoning

sixty-nine miles and an half to an equatorial degree, and may be sailed

round in the space of about three years.15

14.As this book may fall into the hands of persons who do not know what an orrery is, it is for their information I add this note, as the name gives no idea of the uses of the thing. The orrery has its name from the person who invented it. It is a machinery of clock-work, representing the universe in miniature: and in which the revolution of the earth round itself and round the sun, the revolution of the moon round the earth, the revolution of the planets round the sun, their relative distances from the sun, as the center of the whole system, their relative distances from each other, and their different magnitudes, are represented as they really exist in what we call the heavens.-—Author

46

A world of this extent may, at first thought, appear to us to be great;

but if we compare it with the immensity of space in which it is suspen-

ded, like a bubble or a balloon in the air, it is infinitely less in proportion than the smallest grain of sand is to the size of the world, or the finest particle of dew to the whole ocean, and is therefore but small; and, as

will be hereafter shown, is only one of a system of worlds, of which the

universal creation is composed.

It is not difficult to gain some faint idea of the immensity of space in

which this and all the other worlds are suspended, if we follow a pro-

gression of ideas. When we think of the size or dimensions of, a room,

our ideas limit themselves to the walls, and there they stop. But when

our eye, or our imagination darts into space, that is, when it looks up-

ward into what we call the open air, we cannot conceive any walls or

boundaries it can have; and if for the sake of resting our ideas we sup-

pose a boundary, the question immediately renews itself, and asks, what

is beyond that boundary? and in the same manner, what beyond the next

boundary? and so on till the fatigued imagination returns and says, there is no end. Certainly, then, the Creator was not pent for room when he made this world no larger than it is; and we have to seek the reason in

something else.

If we take a survey of our own world, or rather of this, of which the

Creator has given us the use as our portion in the immense system of

creation, we find every part of it, the earth, the waters, and the air that surround it, filled, and as it were crouded with life, down from the

largest animals that we know of to the smallest insects the naked eye can behold, and from thence to others still smaller, and totally invisible

without the assistance of the microscope. Every tree, every plant, every

leaf, serves not only as an habitation, but as a world to some numerous

race, till animal existence becomes so exceedingly refined, that the efflu-via of a blade of grass would be food for thousands.

Since then no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to be sup-

posed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lying in eternal

waste? There is room for millions of worlds as large or larger than ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from each other.

Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only one

thought further, we shall see, perhaps, the true reason, at least a very

good reason for our happiness, why the Creator, instead of making one

15.Allowing a ship to sail, on an average, three miles in an hour, she would sail en-

tirely round the world in less than one year, if she could sail in a direct circle, but she

is obliged to follow the course of the ocean.-—Author.

47

immense world, extending over an immense quantity of space, has pre-

ferred dividing that quantity of matter into several distinct and separate worlds, which we call planets, of which our earth is one. But before I explain my ideas upon this subject, it is necessary (not for the sake of those that already know, but for those who do not) to show what the system of

the universe is.

48

14

Chapter

System of the Universe

That part of the universe that is called the solar system (meaning the system of worlds to which our earth belongs, and of which Sol, or in English language, the Sun, is the center) consists, besides the Sun, of six distinct orbs, or planets, or worlds, besides the secondary bodies, called the satellites, or moons, of which our earth has one that attends her in her annual revolution round the Sun, in like manner as the other satellites or moons, attend the planets or worlds to which they severally belong, as may be

seen by the assistance of the telescope.

The Sun is the center round which those six worlds or planets revolve

at different distances therefrom, and in circles concentric to each other.

Each world keeps constantly in nearly the same tract round the Sun, and

continues at the same time turning round itself, in nearly an upright position, as a top turns round itself when it is spinning on the ground, and leans a little sideways.

It is this leaning of the earth (23½ degrees) that occasions summer and

winter, and the different length of days and nights. If the earth turned

round itself in a position perpendicular to the plane or level of the circle it moves in round the Sun, as a top turns round when it stands erect on

the ground, the days and nights would be always of the same length,

twelve hours day and twelve hours night, and the season would be uni-

formly the same throughout the year.

Every time that a planet (our earth for example) turns round itself, it

makes what we call day and night; and every time it goes entirely round

the Sun, it makes what we call a year, consequently our world turns

three hundred and sixty-five times round itself, in going once round the

Sun.16

16.Those who supposed that the Sun went round the earth every 24 hours made the same mistake in idea that a cook would do in fact, that should make the fire go round the meat, instead of the meat turning round itself towards the fire.—Author.

49

The names that the ancients gave to those six worlds, and which are

still called by the same names, are Mercury, Venus, this world that we

call ours, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They appear larger to the eye than

the stars, being many million miles nearer to our earth than any of the

stars are. The planet Venus is that which is called the evening star, and sometimes the morning star, as she happens to set after, or rise before the Sun, which in either case is never more than three hours.

The Sun as before said being the center, the planet or world nearest the

Sun is Mercury; his distance from the Sun is thirty-four million miles,

and he moves round in a circle always at that distance from the Sun, as a top may be supposed to spin round in the tract in which a horse goes in

a mill. The second world is Venus; she is fifty-seven million miles distant from the Sun, and consequently moves round in a circle much greater

than that of Mercury. The third world is this that we inhabit, and which

is eighty-eight million miles distant from the Sun, and consequently

moves round in a circle greater than that of Venus. The fourth world is

Mars; he is distant from the sun one hundred and thirty-four million

miles, and consequently moves round in a circle greater than that of our

earth. The fifth is Jupiter; he is distant from the Sun five hundred and

fifty-seven million miles, and consequently moves round in a circle

greater than that of Mars. The sixth world is Saturn; he is distant from

the Sun seven hundred and sixty-three million miles, and consequently

moves round in a circle that surrounds the circles or orbits of all the other worlds or planets.

The space, therefore, in the air, or in the immensity of space, that our

solar system takes up for the several worlds to perform their revolutions in round the Sun, is of the extent in a strait line of the whole diameter of the orbit or circle in which Saturn moves round the Sun, which being

double his distance from the Sun, is fifteen hundred and twenty-six mil-

lion miles; and its circular extent is nearly five thousand million; and its globical content is almost three thousand five hundred million times

three thousand five hundred million square miles.17

But this, immense as it is, is only one system of worlds. Beyond this, at a vast distance into space, far beyond all power of calculation, are the

stars called the fixed stars. They are called fixed, because they have no revolutionary motion, as the six worlds or planets have that I have been

describing. Those fixed stars continue always at the same distance from

each other, and always in the same place, as the Sun does in the center of our system. The probability, therefore, is that each of those fixed stars is also a Sun, round which another system of worlds or planets, though too

50

remote for us to discover, performs its revolutions, as our system of

worlds does round our central Sun.

By this easy progression of ideas, the immensity of space will appear

to us to be filled with systems of worlds; and that no part of space lies at waste, any more than any part of our globe of earth and water is left

unoccupied.

Having thus endeavoured to convey, in a familiar and easy manner,

some idea of the structure of the universe, I return to explain what I before alluded to, namely, the great benefits arising to man in consequence of the Creator having made a plurality of worlds, such as our system is, consisting of a central Sun and six worlds, besides satellites, in prefer-ence to that of creating one world only of a vast extent.

17.If it should be asked, how can man know these things? I have one plain answer to give, which is, that man knows how to calculate an eclipse, and also how to calculate to a minute of time when the planet Venus, in making her revolutions round the Sun, will come in a strait line between our earth and the Sun, and will appear to us about the size of a large pea passing across the face of the Sun. This happens but twice in about a hundred years, at the distance of about eight years from each other, and has happened twice in our time, both of which were foreknown by calculation. It can also be known when they will happen again for a thousand years to come, or to any other portion of time. As therefore, man could not be able to do these things if he did not understand the solar system, and the manner in which the revolutions of the several planets or worlds are performed, the fact of calculating an eclipse, or a transit of Venus, is a proof in point that the knowledge exists; and as to a few thousand, or even a few million miles, more or less, it makes scarcely any sensible difference in such immense distances.-—Author.

51

15

Chapter

Advantages of the Existence of Many Worlds in Each

Solar System

It is an idea I have never lost sight of, that all our knowledge of science is derived from the revolutions (exhibited to our eye and from thence to

our understanding) which those several planets or worlds of which our

system is composed make in their circuit round the Sun.

Had then the quantity of matter which these six worlds contain been

blended into one solitary globe, the consequence to us would have been,

that either no revolutionary motion would have existed, or not a suffi-

ciency of it to give us the ideas and the knowledge of science we now

have; and it is from the sciences that all the mechanical arts that contribute so much to our earthly felicity and comfort are derived.

As therefore the Creator made nothing in vain, so also must it be be-

lieved that he organized the structure of the universe in the most advantageous manner for the benefit of man; and as we see, and from experi-

ence feel, the benefits we derive from the structure of the universe,

formed as it is, which benefits we should not have had the opportunity

of enjoying if the structure, so far as relates to our system, had been a solitary globe, we can discover at least one reason why a plurality of worlds has been made, and that reason calls forth the devotional gratitude of

man, as well as his admiration.

But it is not to us, the inhabitants of this globe, only, that the benefits arising from a plurality of worlds are limited. The inhabitants of each of the worlds of which our system is composed, enjoy the same opportunities of knowledge as we do. They behold the revolutionary motions of

our earth, as we behold theirs. All the planets revolve in sight of each

other; and, therefore, the same universal school of science presents itself to all.

Neither does the knowledge stop here. The system of worlds next to us

exhibits, in its revolutions, the same principles and school of science, to 52

the inhabitants of their system, as our system does to us, and in like manner throughout the immensity of space.

Our ideas, not only of the almightiness of the Creator, but of his wis-

dom and his beneficence, become enlarged in proportion as we contem-

plate the extent and the structure of the universe. The solitary idea of a solitary world, rolling or at rest in the immense ocean of space, gives

place to the cheerful idea of a society of worlds, so happily contrived as to administer, even by their motion, instruction to man. We see our own

earth filled with abundance; but we forget to consider how much of that

abundance is owing to the scientific knowledge the vast machinery of

the universe has unfolded.

53

16

Chapter

Application of the Preceding to the System of the

Christians

But, in the midst of those reflections, what are we to think of the christian system of faith that forms itself upon the idea of only one world, and that of no greater extent, as is before shown, than twenty-five thousand

miles. An extent which a man, walking at the rate of three miles an hour

for twelve hours in the day, could he keep on in a circular direction,

would walk entirely round in less than two years. Alas! what is this to

the mighty ocean of space, and the almighty power of the Creator!

From whence then could arise the solitary and strange conceit that the

Almighty, who had millions of worlds equally dependent on his protec-

tion, should quit the care of all the rest, and come to die in our world, because, they say, one man and one woman had eaten an apple! And, on

the other hand, are we to suppose that every world in the boundless cre-

ation had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a redeemer? In this case, the

person who is irreverently called the Son of God, and sometimes God

himself, would have nothing else to do than to travel from world to

world, in an endless succession of death, with scarcely a momentary in-

terval of life.

It has been by rejecting the evidence, that the word, or works of God in

the creation, affords to our senses, and the action of our reason upon that evidence, that so many wild and whimsical systems of faith, and of religion, have been fabricated and set up. There may be many systems of re-

ligion that so far from being morally bad are in many respects morally

good: but there can be but One that is true; and that one necessarily

must, as it ever will, be in all things consistent with the ever existing word of God that we behold in his works. But such is the strange construction of the christian system of faith, that every evidence the heavens affords to man, either directly contradicts it or renders it absurd.

It is possible to believe, and I always feel pleasure in encouraging my-

self to believe it, that there have been men in the world who persuaded

54

themselves that what is called a pious fraud, might, at least under particular circumstances, be productive of some good. But the fraud being once

established, could not afterwards be explained; for it is with a pious

fraud as with a bad action, it begets a calamitous necessity of going on.

The persons who first preached the christian system of faith, and in

some measure combined with it the morality preached by Jesus Christ,

might persuade themselves that it was better than the heathen mytho-

logy that then prevailed. From the first preachers the fraud went on to

the second, and to the third, till the idea of its being a pious fraud became lost in the belief of its being true; and that belief became again encouraged by the interest of those who made a livelihood by preaching it.

But though such a belief might, by such means, be rendered almost

general among the laity, it is next to impossible to account for the con-

tinual persecution carried on by the church, for several hundred years,

against the sciences, and against the professors of science, if the church had not some record or tradition that it was originally no other than a pious fraud, or did not foresee that it could not be maintained against the evidence that the structure of the universe afforded.

55

17

Chapter

Of the Means Employed in All Time, and Almost

Universally, to Deceive the Peoples

Having thus shown the irreconcileable inconsistencies between the real

word of God existing in the universe, and that which is called the word of God, as shown to us in a printed book that any man might make, I proceed to speak of the three principal means that have been employed in

all ages, and perhaps in all countries, to impose upon mankind.

Those three means are Mystery, Miracle, and Prophecy. The first two

are incompatible with true religion, and the third ought always to be

suspected.

With respect to Mystery, everything we behold is, in one sense, a mys-

tery to us. Our own existence is a mystery: the whole vegetable world is

a mystery. We cannot account how it is that an acorn, when put into the

ground, is made to develop itself and become an oak. We know not how

it is that the seed we sow unfolds and multiplies itself, and returns to us such an abundant interest for so small a capital.

The fact however, as distinct from the operating cause, is not a mys-

tery, because we see it; and we know also the means we are to use, which

is no other than putting the seed in the ground. We know, therefore, as

much as is necessary for us to know; and that part of the operation that

we do not know, and which if we did, we could not perform, the Creator

takes upon himself and performs it for us. We are, therefore, better off

than if we had been let into the secret, and left to do it for ourselves.

But though every created thing is, in this sense, a mystery, the word

mystery cannot be applied to moral truth, any more than obscurity can be applied to light. The God in whom we believe is