The work of which we offer a translation to the public has created
the greatest sensation in England. Paine, that man of freedom, who
seems born to preach " Common Sense " to the whole world with the
same success as in America, explains in it to the people of England
the theory of the practice of the Rights of Man.
Owing to the prejudices that still govern that nation, the author has
been obliged to condescend to answer Mr. Burke. He has done so more
especially in an extended preface which is nothing but a piece of
very tedious controversy, in which he shows himself very sensitive to
criticisms that do not really affect him. To translate it seemed an
insult to the free French people, and similar reasons have led the
editors to suppress also a dedicatory epistle addressed by Paine to
Lafayette.
The French can no longer endure dedicatory epistles. A man should
write privately to those he esteems: when he publishes a book his
thoughts should be offered to the public alone. Paine, that
uncorrupted friend of freedom, believed too in the sincerity of
Lafayette. So easy is it to deceive men of single-minded purpose!
Bred at a distance from courts, that austere American does not seem
any more on his guard against the artful ways and speech of courtiers
than some Frenchmen who resemble him.
