Martinsburg Gazette And Public Advertiser

An anecdote of Thomas Paine

-One very warm evening, about twenty years ago, passing the house where Thomas boarded, the lower window was open, and seeing him sitting close by, and being on speaking terms, I stepped in for a half hour's chat; seven or eight of his friends were also present, whose doubts and his own he was laboring to remove by a long talk about the story of Joshua commanding the sun and moon to stand still, &c., and concluded by denouncing the Bible as the worst of books, and that it had occasioned more mischief and bloodshed than any book ever printed--and was believed only by fools and designing knaves, &c.

Here he paused, and while he was replenishing the tumbler with his favorite brandy and water, a person, who I afterwards found was an intruder, like myself, asked Mr Paine if he ever was in Scotland?

'The answer was, yes So have I been, continues the speaker; and the Scotch are the greatest bigots with the Bible I ever met--it is their schoolbook. Their houses and churches are furnished with Bibles, and if they travel but a few miles from home, their Bible is always their companion: yet, continues the speaker, in no country where I have travelled have I seen the people so comfortable and happy; their poor are not in such abject poverty as I have seen in other countries: by their bigoted custom of going to church on Sundays, they save the wages which they earn through the week, which in other countries that I have visited, is generally spent by mechanics and other young men in taverns and frolic on Sundays; and of all the foreigners who land on our shores, none are so much sought after for servants, and to fill places where trust is reposed, as the Scotch: you rarely find them in taverns, the watch house, bridewell, or state prison.

Now, says he, if the Bible is so bad a book, those who use it most would be the worst of people, but the reverse is the case This was a sort of argument Paine was not prepared to answer, and a historical fact which could not be denied--so without saying a word, he lifted a candle from the table, and walked up stairs; his disciples slipped out one by one, and left the speaker and T. to enjoy the scene.--N Y Spectator