Footnotes for Part I, Chapter I
1. <\l > It is, however, necessary to except the declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children. This is contrary to every principle of moral justice.-Author.
2. <\l > The French work has here: "Quoi qu’il en soit, ce verteux réformateur, ce révolutionnaire trop peu imité, trop oublié, trop méconnu, perdit la vie pour l’une ou pour l’autre de ces suppositions." However this may be, for one or the other of these suppositions this virtuous reformer, this revolutionist, too little imitated, too much forgotten, too much misunderstood, lost his life.-Editor.
3. <\l > The French work has: "cédant à une gourmandise effrénée" (yielding to an unrestrained appetite).-Editor.
4. <\l > The French work has "aveugle et" (blind and) preceding "dismal."-Editor.
5. <\l > The French work has "frédaine" (prank).-Editor.
6. <\l > It must be borne in mind that by the "Bible" Paine always means the Old Testament alone.-Editor.
7. <\l > As there are many readers who do not see that a composition is poetry, unless it be in rhyme, it is for their information that I add this note.
Poetry consists principally in two things-imagery and composition. The composition of poetry differs from that of prose in the manner of mixing long and short syllables together. Take a long syllable out of a line of poetry, and put a short one in the room of it, or put a long syllable where a short one should be, and that line will lose its poetical harmony. It will have an effect upon the line like that of misplacing a note in a song. The imagery in those books called the Prophets appertains altogether to poetry. It is fictitious, and often extravagant, and not admissible in any other kind of writing than poetry. To shew that these writings are composed in poetical numbers, I will take ten syllables, as they stand in the book, and make a line of the same number of syllables, (heroic measure) that shall rhyme with the last word. It will then be seen that the composition of those books is poetical measure. The instance I shall first produce is from Isaiah:- "Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth!"
’T is God himself that calls attention forth.
Another instance I shall quote is from the mournful Jeremiah, to which I shall add two other lines, for the purpose of carrying out the figure, and shewing the intention of the poet.
"O, that mine head were waters and mine eyes"
Were fountains flowing like the liquid skies;
Then would I give the mighty flood release
And weep a deluge for the human race.-Author.
[This footnote is not included in the French work.]-Editor.
8. <\l > 1 Chronicles 25:1.-Editor.
9. <\l > As those men who call themselves divines and commentators are very fond of puzzling one another, I leave them to contest the meaning of the first part of the phrase, that of an evil spirit of God. I keep to my text. I keep to the meaning of the word prophesy.-Author.
10. <\l > 1 Samuel 18:10.-Editor.
11. <\l > This paragraph is not in the French work.-Editor.
12. <\l > "A man named Jesus, and he about thirty years, chose us out."-Gospel according to the Hebrews.-Editor.
13. <\l > , a skilled worker in wood, stone, or iron; a builder; not necessarily a carpenter-Editor.
14. <\l > One of the few errors traceable to Paine’s not having a Bible at hand while writing Part I. There is no indication that the family was poor, but the reverse may in fact be inferred.-Editor.
15. <\l > French: "Je réponds hardiment que nous ne sommes point condamnés à ce malheur." (I boldly answer that we are not condemned to this misfortune.)-Editor.
16. <\l > The French translator has substituted for this a version of the same psalm by Jean Baptiste Rousseau.-Editor.
17. <\l > The French here has "plutôt" (rather).-Editor.
18. <\l > French: "La suprême intelligence" instead of "God."-Editor.
19. <\l > French: "La théologie naturelle."-Editor.
20. <\l > In the French is added: "et que même, par l’ignorance que les gouvernemens modernes ont répandue, il soit très-rare aujourd’hui, que ces personnes s’en doutent" (and, such is the ignorance prevailing under modern governments, it is now even very rare for such persons to think about it).-Editor.
21. <\l > French: "C’est un mensonge, une fraude pieuse."-Editor.
22. <\l > French: "ce nonsense arithmetique." The words "christian system" do not occur in the clause.-Editor.
23. <\l > Instead of "christian system of faith," the French has "ce tissu d’ absurdités."-Editor.
24. <\l > French: "aride."-Editor.
25. <\l > I cannot discover the source of this statement concerning the ancient author whose Irish name Feirghill was Latinized into Virgilius. The British Museum possesses a copy of the work (Decalogium) which was the pretext of the charge of heresy made by Boniface, Archbishop of Mayence, against Virgilius, Abbot-bishop of Salzburg. These were leaders of the rival "British" and "Roman" parties, and the British champion made a countercharge against Boniface of "irreligious practices" Boniface had to express a "regret," but none the less pursued his rival. The Pope, Zachary II., decided that if his alleged "doctrine, against God and his soul, that beneath the earth there is another world, other men, or sun and moon," should be acknowledged by Virgilius, he should be excommunicated by a Council and condemned with canonical sanctions. Whatever may have been the fate involved by condemnation with "canonicis sanctionibus," in the middle of the eighth century, it did not fall on Virgilius. His accuser, Boniface, was martyred, 755, and it is probable that Virgilius harmonized his Antipodes with orthodoxy. The gravamen of the heresy seems to have been the suggestion that there were men not of the progeny of Adam. Virgilius was made Bishop of Salzburg in 768. He bore until his death, 789, the curious title, "Geometer and Solitary," or "lone wayfarer" (Solivagus). A suspicion of heresy clung to his memory until 1233, when he was raised by Gregory IX. to sainthood beside his accuser, St. Boniface.-Editor.
26. <\l > It is impossible for us now to know at what time the heathen mythology began; but it is certain, from the internal evidence that it carries, that it did not begin in the same state or condition in which it ended. All the gods of that mythology, except Saturn, were of modern invention. The supposed reign of Saturn was prior to that which is called the heathen mythology, and was so far a species of theism that it admitted the belief of only one God. Saturn is supposed to have abdicated the government in favour of his three sons and one daughter, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and Juno; after this, thousands of other gods and demi-gods were imaginarily created, and the calendar of gods increased as fast as the calendar of saints and the calendar of courts have increased since.
All the corruptions that have taken place, in theology and in religion have been produced by admitting of what man calls revealed religion. The mythologists pretended to more revealed religion than the christians do. They had their oracles and their priests, who were supposed to receive and deliver the word of God verbally on almost all occasions.
Since then all corruptions down from Moloch to modern predestinarianism, and the human sacrifices of the heathens to the christian sacrifice of the Creator, have been produced by admitting of what is called revealed religion, the most effectual means to prevent all such evils and impositions is, not to admit of any other revelation than that which is manifested in the book of Creation, and to contemplate the Creation as the only true and real word of God that ever did or ever will exist; and every thing else called the word of God is fable and imposition.-Author.
27. <\l > French: "ce moine" (this monk) instead of "Luther."-Editor.
28. <\l > French: "la civilisation" instead of "liberality."-Editor.
29. <\l > The same school, Thetford in Norfolk, that the present Counsellor Mingay went to, and under the same master-Author. [This note is not in the French work.-Editor.]
30. <\l > The pamphlet Common Sense was first advertised, as "just published," on January 10, 1776. His plea for the Officers of Excise, written before leaving England, was printed, but not published until 1793. Despite his reiterated assertion that Common Sense was the first work he ever published the notion that he was "Junius" still finds some believers. An indirect comment on out Paine-Junians may be found in Part 2 of this work where Paine says a man capable of writing Homer "would not have thrown away his own fame by giving it to another." It is probable that Paine ascribed the Letters of Junius to Thomas Hollis. His friend F. Lanthenas, in his translation of the Age of Reason (1794) advertises his translation of the Letters of Junius from the English "(Thomas Hollis)." This he could hardly have done without consultation with Paine. Unfortunately this translation of Junius cannot be found either in the Bibliothèque Nationale or the British Museum, and it cannot be said whether it contains any attempt at an identification of Junius-Editor.
31. <\l > This sentence is not in the French work.-Editor.
32. <\l > No doubt Paine’s aunt, Miss Cooke, who managed to have him confirmed in the parish church at Thetford.-Editor.
33. <\l > As this book may fall into the hands of persons who do not know what an orrery is, it is for their information I add this note, as the name gives no idea of the uses of the thing. The orrery has its name from the person who invented it. It is a machinery of clock-work, representing the universe in miniature: and in which the revolution of the earth round itself and round the sun, the revolution of the moon round the earth, the revolution of the planets round the sun, their relative distances from the sun, as the center of the whole system, their relative distances from each other, and their different magnitudes, are represented as they really exist in what we call the heavens.-Author.
34. <\l > Allowing a ship to sail, on an average, three miles in an hour, she would sail entirely round the world in less than one year, if she could sail in a direct circle, but she is obliged to follow the course of the ocean.-Author.
35. <\l > Those who supposed that the Sun went round the earth every 24 hours made the same mistake in idea that a cook would do in fact, that should make the fire go round the meat, instead of the meat turning round itself towards the fire.-Author.
36. <\l > With reference to the omission of any mention of Uranus, see the Introduction. In the New York edition, 1794, edited by Col. John Fellows, occurs this footnote: "Mr. Paine had made no mention of the planet Herschel, which was first discovered, by the person whose name it bears, in 1781. It is at a greater distance from the Sun than either of the other planets and consequently occupies a greater length of time in performing its revolutions."-Editor.
37. <\l > If it should be asked, how can man know these things? I have one plain answer to give, which is, that man knows how to calculate an eclipse, and also how to calculate to a minute of time when the planet Venus, in making her revolutions round the Sun, will come in a strait line between our earth and the Sun, and will appear to us about the size of a large pea passing across the face of the Sun. This happens but twice in about a hundred years, at the distance of about eight years from each other, and has happened twice in our time, both of which were foreknown by calculation. It can also be known when they will happen again for a thousand years to come, or to any other portion of time. As therefore, man could not be able to do these things if he did not understand the solar system, and the manner in which the revolutions of the several planets or worlds are performed, the fact of calculating an eclipse, or a transit of Venus, is a proof in point that the knowledge exists; and as to a few thousand, or even a few million miles, more or less, it makes scarcely any sensible difference in such immense distances.-Author.
38. <\l > This speculation has been confirmed by nineteenth-century astronomy. "The stars, speaking broadly, are suns" (Clarke’s System of the Stars, ch. iii). See Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy, Part III. ch. xv.-Editor.
39. <\l > The French work has "plusieurs planètes" (many planets) instead of "six worlds."-Editor.
40. <\l > The French work has "triste."-Editor.
41. <\l > The French work has: "leur mouvement même est le premier éveil, la première instruction de la raison dans l’homme." (Their motion itself is the first awakening, the first instruction of the reason in man).-Editor.
42. <\l > Such constant rebirth of the Son was the doctrine of Master Eckhardt, (4th cent.).-Editor.
43. <\l > In the French work: "du verbe croire."-Editor.
44. <\l > "In the childhood of the world," according to the first (French) version; and the strict translation of the final sentence is "Deism was the religion of Adam, supposing him not an imaginary being; but none the less must it be left to all men to follow, as is their right, the religion and worship they prefer."-Editor.
