In her religious principles, the son appears to have been educated ; for we find he was confirmed, at the usual age, by the Bishop of Norwich. After leaving school, (at the early age of thirteen,) Paine embraced his father's trade as a stay-maker, in which he continued five years. He next ventured on a sea-faring life. In 1759 he again established himself in stay-making, and married his first wife, Mary Lambert, who died the next year, in consequence of his bad treatment of her.

T>vo years after this, he obtained a place in the excise, from which he was twice expelled for mal-practices. In 1771 he married his second wife, Elizabeth Olive, from whom in three years he obtained a divorce. In 1774 he composed his first production, (an election song,) for which he obtained three guineas. The great Franklin found him a garret writer in London, and was the first person who advised him to come to this country. In Philadelphia, under the auspices of such men as Rush, Franklin and others, he prepared and published his " Common Sense j " a work which appears to have been well-timed, and calcuated to rouse the enthusiasm of the brave asserters of independence. As a work of merit, it was well suited to the times in which it was first published; but, as his own biographer remarks, " it is defective in arrangement, inelegant in diction, with a few exceptions showing little profundity of argument, no facility of remark, no extent of research, and no classical allusion, and cannot be appealed to as authority on government." Its popularity was owing entirely to the critical juncture of the times.