Some said it was to the interest of the colonies to be free. Paine
answered this by saying: "To know whether it be the interest of the
continent to be independent, we need ask only this simple, easy
question: 'Is it the interest of man to be a boy all his life?"' He
found many who would listen to nothing, and to them he said: "That to
argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to
the dead." This sentiment ought to adorn the walls of every orthodox
church.

There is a world of political wisdom in this: "England lost her liberty
in a long chain of right reasoning from wrong principles;" and there is
real discrimination in saying: "The Greeks and Romans were strongly
possessed of the spirit of liberty, but not the principles, for at the
time they were determined not to be slaves themselves, they employed
their power to enslave the rest of mankind."

In his letter to the British people, in which he tried to convince them
that war was not to their interest, occurs the following passage brimful
of common sense: "War never can be the interest of a trading nation any
more than quarreling can be profitable to a man in business. But to
make war with those who trade with us is like setting a bull-dog upon a
customer at the shop door."

The Writings of Paine fairly glitter with simple, compact, logical
statements that carry conviction to the dullest and most prejudicial.
He had the happiest possible way of putting the case, in asking
questions in such a way that they answer themselves, and in stating his
premises so clearly that the deduction could not be avoided.

Day and night he labored for America. Month after month, year after