There is a marked peculiarity in taking illustrations from the Bible, and I now speak of and compare the political writings of Mr. Paine with Junius. Junius is filled with such references, and they are no less plentiful in Common Sense. This leads me on to speak of figures of speech.

In the use of the trope I find the one a reproduction of the other. The metaphor comes before us in every conceivable beauty, and herein they paint with an artist's skill, and the many delicate touches, as well as bold strokes, show the same hand at the brush. There is never, for example, a long and labored metaphor; never a company of them together; never one that does not apply with admirable effect.

At the close of an article, a figure of speech is often used with a master's skill, and leaves an impression on the mind of the reader not easily effaced. In this they are alike. Junius, for example, closes thirty-six of his Letters in this manner; and in Mr. Paine's three works—Common Sense, The Crisis, and Rights of Man—he closes twenty-three parts in this manner, which gives us about the same ratio. They both abound in metaphor and comparison. Seldom do they use allegory or hyperbole, but personification and exclamation are frequent. I will now give a few parallels which I have selected from the many examples, and I will begin the list with exclamations so common to both:

Paine.Junius.
Alas!
I thank God!
For God's sake!
In the name of Heaven!
Good God!
Good Heavens!
I pray God!
 But, alas!
I thank God!
Would to God!
In God's name!
May God protect me!
I appeal to God for my sincerity!
I pray God!

The expression, "I thank God!" is the most frequent with both. As this is not common with writers, the parallel is a strong one. But to continue:

Paine.Junius.
"Every political physician will advise a different medicine."—Common Sense. "It is not the disorder, but the physician—it is the pernicious hand of government."—Let. 1.
"Why is the nation sickly?" "Infuse a portion of new health into the constitution."—Let. 68.
"Like a prodigal lingering in habitual consumption, you feel the relics of life, and mistake them for recovery."—Address to English people. "No man regards an eruption on the surface when the noble parts are invaded and he feels a mortification approaching the heart."—Let. 39.
"These are the times that try men's souls."—Crisis, i. "These are not the times to admit of any relaxation in the little discipline we have left."
The constituents "making a rod for themselves." "Under the rod of the constituent."
Speaking of Abbe Raynal's work, he calls it a "performance."—Letter to. Speaking of M. de Lolme's Essay on Government, he calls it a "performance."—Preface.
"At stake." This expression is very frequent. "At stake." This expression is very frequent.
"In one view." Quite frequent. "In one view." Quite frequent.
"The time is not very distant." "The period is not very distant."
"The simple voice of nature and reason will say it is right." "The voice of truth and reason must be silent."
"Where nature hath given the one she hath withheld the other." "Nature has been sparing of her gifts to this noble lord."
"For as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution has most weight." "We incline the balance as effectually by lessening the weight in the one scale as by increasing it in the other." "You would fain be thought to take no share in government, while in reality you are the mainspring of the machine."
"One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion." "It is you, Sir William, who make your friend appear awkward and ridiculous, by giving him a laced suit of tawdry qualifications which nature never intended him to wear."

In the last metaphor nature personified is brought forward as the actor, by turning to ridicule the vanity of man in assuming more than he is. Junius, without expressing it in words, has put forward the fable of the ass in a lion's skin, when speaking of Lord Granby's courage. But Mr. Paine has applied the same fable to the king. The figures are differently expressed but exactly the same.

Paine.Junius.
"Like wasting an estate on a suit at law to regulate the trespasses of a tenant, whose lease is just expiring." "Like broken tenants who have had warning to quit the premises, they curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw every thing into confusion, and care not what mischief they do the estate."