From what cause it was that the intention was not put in
execution, I know not, and cannot inform myself; and
therefore I ascribe it to impossibility, on account of that
illness.

The Convention, to repair as much as lay in their power
the injustice I had sustained, invited me publickly and
unanimously to return into the Convention, and which I
accepted, to shew I could bear an injury without permitting
it to injure my principles or my disposition. It is not be-
cause right principles have been violated, that they are to
be abandoned.

I have seen, since I have been at liberty, several publi-
cations written, some in America, and some in England, as
answers to the former part of "The Age of Reason." If the
authors of these can amuse themselves by so doing, I shall
not interrupt them. They may write against the work, and
against me, as much as they please; they do me more service
than they intend, and I can have no objection that they
write on. They will find, however, by this Second Part,
without its being written as an answer to them, that they
must return to their work, and spin their cobweb over again.
The first is brushed away by accident.

They will now find that I have furnished myself with a
Bible and Testament; and I can say also that I have found
them to be much worse books than I had conceived. If I
have erred in any thing, in the former part of the Age of
Reason, it has been by speaking better of some parts than
they deserved.

I observe, that all my opponents resort, more or less, to
what they call Scripture Evidence and Bible authority, to
help them out. They are so little masters of the subject,
as to confound a dispute about authenticity with a dispute
about doctrines; I will, however, put them right, that if
they should be disposed to write any more, they may know
how to begin.

THOMAS PAINE.

October, 1795.

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