three years, when he relinquished it in August 1765, and commenced it again in July 1766.

In this interval he was teacher at Mr. Noble's academy in Leman Street, Goodman's Fields, at a salary of £25 a year. In a similar occupation he afterwards lived for a short time, at Kensington, with a Mr. Gardner.

I remember when once speaking of the im provement he gained in the above capacities and some other lowly situations he had been in, he made this observation: "Here I derived "considerable information; indeed I have sel"dom passed five minutes of my life, how“ ever circumstanced, in which I did not ac quire some knowledge."

During this residence in London Mr. Paine attended the philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and became acquainted with Dr. Bevis of the Temple, a great astronomer. In these studies and in the mathematics he soon became a proficient.

In March 1768 he was settled as an excise

man at Lewes, in Sussex, and there, on the 26th of March 1771, married Elizabeth Ollive, shortly after the death of her father, whose trade of a tobacconist and grocer he entered into and carried on.

In this place he lived several years in habits of intimacy with a very respectable, sensible, and convivial set of acquaintance, who were entertained with his witty sallies, and informed by his more serious conversations.

In politics he was at this time a Whig, and notorious for that quality which has been defined perseverance in a good cause and obstinacy in a bad one. He was tenacious of his opinions, which were bold, acute, and independent, and which he maintained with ardour, elegance, and argument.

At this period, at Lewes, the White Hart evening club was the resort of a social and intelligent circle who, out of fun, seeing that disputes often ran very warm and high, frequently had what they called the Headstrong Book.' This was no other than an old Greek

Homer which was sent the morning after a debate vehemently maintained, to the most obstinate haranguer of the Club: this book had the following title, as implying that Mr. Paine the best deserved and the most frequently obtained it.

THE

HEADSTRONG BOOK,

OR

ORIGINAL BOOK OF OBSTINACY,

WRITTEN BY

***** ****, OF LEWES, IN SUSSEX,

AND REVISED AND CORRECTED BY

THOMAS PAINE.

EULOGY ON PAINE.

Immortal PAINE, while mighty reasoners jar,
We crown thee General of the Headstrong War;
Thy logic vanquish'd error, and thy mind
No bounds, but those of right and truth, confined.
Thy soul of fire must sure ascend the sky,
Immortal PAINE, thy fame can never die;
For men like thee their names must ever save
From the black edicts of the tyrant grave.

My friend Mr. Lee, of Lewes, in communicating this to me in September 1810, said "This was manufactured nearly forty years ago,

as applicable to Mr. Paine, and I believe you "will allow, however indifferent the manner, "that I did not very erroneously anticipate "his future celebrity."

During his residence at Lewes, he wrote several excellent little pieces in prose and verse, and among the rest the celebrated song on the death of General Wolfe, beginning

In a mouldering cave where the wretched retreat

It was about this time he wrote "The Trial of Farmer Carter's Dog Porter," in the manner of a drama, a work of exquisite wit and hu

mour.

In 1772 the excise officers throughout the kingdom formed a design of applying to parliament for some addition to their salaries.

* This and other of Mr. Paine's poetical effusions, the reader will find at the close of this work.

Upon this occasion Mr. Paine, who by this time was distinguished amongst them as a man of talent, was fixed upon as a fit person, and solicited to draw up their case, and this he did in a very succinct and masterly manner. This case makes an octavo pamphlet, and four thousand copies were printed by Mr. Wm. Lee of Lewes it is entitled "The Case of the Salary of the Officers of Excise, and Thoughts on the Corruption arising from the Poverty of Excise Officers." No application, however, notwithstanding this effort, was made to parliament.

1

In April 1774 the goods of his shop were sold to pay his debts.

As a grocer, he trafficked in exciseable articles, and being suspected of unfair practices was dismissed the excise after being in it twelve years. Whether this reason was a just one or not never was ascertained: it was however the ostensible one.

Mr. Paine might perhaps have been in the habit of smuggling, in common with his neigh