st beautiful objects the
eye can behold. I then cast a model in metal following the construction
of that in paste-board and of the same dimensions. The whole was
executed in my own Chamber. It is far superior in strength, elegance,
and readiness in execution to the model I made in America, and which you
saw in Paris.(1) I shall bring those models with me when I come
home, which will be as soon as I can pass the seas in safety from the
piratical John Bulls. I suppose you have seen, or have heard of the
Bishop of Landaff's answer to my second part of the Age of Reason. As
soon as I got a copy of it I began a third part, which served also as an
answer to the Bishop; but as soon as the clerical society for promoting
_Christian Knowledge_ knew of my intention to answer the Bishop, they
prosecuted, as a Society, the printer of the first and second parts, to
prevent that answer appearing. No other reason than this can be assigned
for their prosecuting at the time they did, because the first part had
been in circulation above three years and the second part more than one,
and they prosecuted immediately on knowing that I was taking up their
Champion. The Bishop's answer, like Mr. Burke's attack on the french
revolution, served me as a back-ground to bring forward other subjects
upon, with more advantage than if the background was not there. This is
the motive that induced me to answer him, otherwise I should have gone
on without taking any notice of him. I have made and am still making
additions to the manuscript, and shall continue to do so till an
opportunity arrive for publishing it.

1 "These models exhibit an extraordinary degree not only of
skill, but of taste, and are wrought with extreme delicacy
entirely by his own hands. The largest is nearly four feet
in length; the iron-works, the chains, and every other
article belonging to it, were forged and manufactured by
himself. It is intended as the model of a bridge which is to
be constructed across the Delaware, extending 480 feet, with
only one arch. The other is to be erected over a lesser
river, whose name I forget, and is likewise a single arch,
and of his own workmanship, excepting the chains, which,
instead of iron, are cut out of paste-hoard by the fair hand
of his correspondent, the 'Little Corner of the World' (Lady
Smyth), whose indefatigable perseverance is extraordinary.
He was offered L3000