Thomas Paine: “Science, the partizan of no country, but the beneficent patroness of all, has liberally opened a temple where all may…”

In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?

It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.