books, but the Scriptures called the Creation."

If it were possible to establish a new _cultus,_ based upon mere
abstract principles, Frenchmen, we should say, would be about the last
people who could do it. This new worship, like any other play, drew
well as long as it was new, and no longer. The moral men and women soon
grew tired of it, and relapsed into the old faith and the old forms.

The end of all this child's play at government and at religion came at
last. Bonaparte, checked at Acre by Sir Sydney Smith, left the East,
landed in France in October, 1799, sent a file of grenadiers to turn
Ancients and Five Hundred out of their halls, and seated himself in the
chair of state.

After this conclusive _coup d'etat,_ Paine sunk out of sight. The First
Consul might have examined with interest the iron bridge, but could
never have borne with the soiled person and the threadbare principles
of the philosopher of two hemispheres. Bonaparte loved neatness and
elegance, and disliked _ideologues_ and _bavards,_ as he styled all
gentlemen of Paine's turn of mind.

In 1802, after the peace with England, Paine set sail from Havre to end
his days in the United States. Here we leave him. We have neither space
nor inclination to sum up his virtues and his vices in these columns,
and to give him a character according to the balance struck. We have
sketched a few outlines of his history as we have found it scattered
about in newspapers and pamphlets. Our readers may make up their own
minds whether this supposed ally of the Arch Enemy was as black as he
has been painted.