Anyone may have three guesses
as to his reported next ambition. More than one historian has declared
that he wished to take orders in the Church of England. This is,
however, extremely unlikely. In any case, he changed his mind in time,
and was again taken on as exciseman. Likewise, he was again dismissed.
This time they fired him for advocating higher wages and writing a
pamphlet on the subject. The reform fever had caught him, you
perceive, and he was nevermore free from it, to the day of his death.
He was a brilliant mathematician and an ingenious inventor. Brailsford
says that his inventions were "partly useful, partly whimsical." They
would be, of course. They included a crane, a planing-machine, a
smokeless candle and a gunpowder motor--besides his really big and
notable invention of the first iron bridge.
[Illustration: 59, GROVE STREET. On the site of the house where Thomas
Paine died.]
But that came later. Before leaving England, in addition to his other
and varied occupations, he ran a "tobacco mill," and was twice
married.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161