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$RIGHTS OF MAN$
$by THOMAS PAINE$
$first published in England, 1791 by J.S.Jordan$
$published by PENGUIN CLASSICS 1985, with modernised spelling$
$Author's footnotes included in text in square brackets,
italicisation in curly brackets. C.A.B.$
<1.01>
PART ONE
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, President of the United States of
America
Sir,
I present you a small Treatise in defence of those
Principles of Freedom which your exemplary Virtue hath so
eminently contributed to establish. - That the Rights of Man
may become as universal as your Benevolence can wish, and
that you may enjoy the Happiness of seeing the New World
regenerate the Old, is the prayer of
Sir,
Your most obliged, and
Obedient and humble Servant,
THOMAS PAINE
<1.02>
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
From the part Mr. Burke played in the American
Revolution, it was natural that I should consider him a
f . . .
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[TEXT: see note to part I] <2.01> PART TWO To M. DE LAFAYETTE AFTER an acquaintance of nearly fifteen years, in difficult situations in America, and various consultations in Europe, I feel a pleasure in presenting to you this small treatise, in gratitude for your services to my beloved America, and as a testimony of my esteem for the virtues, public and private, which I know you to possess. The only point upon which I could ever discover that we differed, was not as to principles of Government, but as to time. For my own part, I think it equally as injurious to good principles to permit them to linger, as to push them on too fast. That which you suppose accomplishable in fourteen or fifteen years, I may believe practicable in a much shorter period. Mankind, as it appears to me, are always ripe enough to understand their true interest, provided it be presented clearly to their understanding, and that in a manner not to create suspicion by anything like self-design, nor offe . . .
