"Nothing but the sharpest essence of villainy compounded with the strongest distillation of folly, could have produced a _menstruum_ that would have effected a separation."--Crisis, iii. "He was forced to go through every division, resolution, composition, and refinement of political chemistry before he happily arrived at the _caput mortuum_ of vitriol in your grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state; but brought into action you become vitriol again."--Let. 15. In the above Mr. Paine applies this figure of political chemistry to the causes which led to the separation of the colonies from England. Junius is speaking to the Duke of Grafton. "_Menstruum_" and "_Caput mortuum_," are old chemical terms. The former means that which will dissolve, and the latter the worthless matter which is left. They are both figures of analysis, and show the writer to have given his attention to chemistry. Mr. Paine, it is well known, in 1775, shortly after arriving in America, "set his talents to work" to _make_ saltpeter by some cheap and expeditious method, and formed an association to supply gratuitously the national magazines with powder. This fact also shows that Mr. Paine came to America to fight England; for it was before he had written his Common Sense. His object was, to be prepared; his method was, first the powder and then the Declaration of Independence, which last was produced by the pamphlet Common Sense. _Paine._ "It renders man diminutive in things that are great, and the counterfeit of woman in things that are small."--Rights of Man, part i. _Junius._ "Women, and men like women, are timid, vindictive, and irresolute."--Let. 41. "Fact is superior to reasoning."--Rights of Man, part ii., chap. i. "The plain evidence of facts is superior to all declarations."--Let. 5. "You sunk yourself below the character of a private gentleman."--Crisis, ii. "You are degraded below the condition of a man."--Let. 34. "Now if I have any conception of the _human heart_, they will fail in this more than in any thing they have yet tried."--Crisis, iii. "I thought, however, he had been better read in the history of the _human heart_."--Let. 27. Mr. Paine and Junius both reasoned, and this very often, from the nature of man, and especially his passions. The following are parallels: _Paine._ "Spirit of prophecy." "Man of spirit." "Air of." "Strokes of." "Give color to." "Tranquillity of." "Narrow views." _Junius._