They represent a beautiful wilderness without paths; in which the eye is diverted by every thing, without being particularly directed to any thing: and in which it is agreeable to be lost, and difficult to find the way out.
Paine uses a metaphor to describe writings that are beautiful yet confusing and lacking direction.
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It has nothing to dread from attacks; truth has given it an establishment, and time will record it with a name as lasting as his own.
The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.
The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.
Many of the facts were in themselves principles; such as the declaration of American Independence, and the treaty of alliance between France and America, which recognised the natural rights of man, and justified resistance to oppression.