The first edition of Thomas Paine’s controversial work The Age of Reason has long been a bibliographical enigma. There are many contenders for priority, published in French or English and dated either 1794 of “1 An II” of the French Revolutionary Calendar.
The First Appearance Of Thomas Paine’s The Age Of Reason Read Post »
No one illustrates a form of committing political suicide better than Thomas Paine. He did not hesitate a moment to rush in to promote every good cause and to expose every injustice, and he ended up being generally despised, with virtually everyone his enemy for one reason or another.
Succeeding generations have seen the smoke screen of personal abuse around Paine gradually disappear, allowing him to stand forth as the greatest advocate of democracy, social security and freedom of thought the world has yet seen.
![“Reason against unreason” a 1882 illustration by Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann shows the “Light of Reason”, containing bust portraits of “Johannes Kepler, I. Kant, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, B. de Spinoza, Franklin, Voltaire, E.H. Haeckel, Tyndall, Huxley, [and] Darwin”, beaming against a large umbrella labeled “Bigotry, Supernaturalism, [and] Fanaticism” – Library of Congress](https://thomaspaine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Reason-against-unreason.jpg)
Paine frequently stated that he was not a member of any political party, but it is apparent from the following letters and the anonymous articles, that he took a more active part than has hitherto been known in helping the Republican (Jeffersonian) Party.
