, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with
which more than half the Bible [NOTE: It must be borne in mind that by
the "Bible" Paine always means the Old Testament alone.--Editor.] is
filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a
demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that
has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my own part, I
sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.

We scarcely meet with anything, a few phrases excepted, but what
deserves either our abhorrence or our contempt, till we come to the
miscellaneous parts of the Bible. In the anonymous publications, the
Psalms, and the Book of Job, more particularly in the latter, we find
a great deal of elevated sentiment reverentially expressed of the power
and benignity of the Almighty; but they stand on no higher rank than
many other compositions on similar subjects, as well before that time as
since.

The Proverbs which are said to be Solomon's, though most probably
a collection, (because they discover a knowledge of life, which his
situation excluded him from knowing) are an instructive table of ethics.
They are inferior in keenness to the proverbs of the Spaniards, and not
more wise and oeconomical than those of the American Franklin.

All the remaining parts of the Bible, generally known by the name of the
Prophets, are the works of the Jewish poets and itinerant preachers,
who mixed poetry, anecdote, and devotion together--and those works still
retain the air and style of poetry, though in translation. [NOTE: As
there are many readers who do not see that a composition is poetry,
unless it be in rhyme, it is for their information that I add this note.

Poetry consists principally in two things--imagery and composition. The
composition of poetry differs from that of prose in the manner of mixing
long and short syllables together. Take a long syllable out of a line
of poetry, and put a short one in the room of it, or put a long syllable
where a short one should be, and that line will lose its poetical
harmony. It will have an effect upon the line like that of misplacing a
note in a song.

The imagery in those books called the Prophets appertains altogether to
poetry. It is fictitious, and often extravagant, and not admissible in
any other kind of writing than poetry.

To show that these writings are composed in poetical numbers, I will
take ten syllables, as they stand in the book, and make a