"As you can compare the Candle with the Lamp, you will have an opportunity of ascertaining the cause--why it will do in the one and not in the other. When the edge of the en-flamed part of the wick is close with the edge of the Tin of the Lamp no counter current of air can enter--but as this contact does not take place in the Candle a counter current enters and prevents the effect [?] in the candles which illuminates the Lamp. For the passing of the air thro' the Lamp does not, I imagine, burn the smoke, but burns up all the oil into flame, or by its rapidity prevents any part of the oil flying off in the state of half-flame which is smoke. "I do not, my Dear Sir, offer these reasons to you but to myself, for I have often observed that by lending words for my thoughts I understand my thoughts the better. Thoughts are a kind of mental smoke, which require words to illuminate them. "I am affectionately your Obt. & Hble. servant, "Thomas Paine. "I hope to be well enough tomorrow to wait on you." {1786} Paine had now to lay aside his iron arch and bridge a financial flood. A party had arisen in Philadelphia, determined to destroy the "Bank of North America." Paine had confidence in this bank, and no one knew its history better, for it had grown out of the subscription he headed (May, 1780) with $500 for the relief of Washington's suffering army. It had been incorporated by Congress, and ultimately by Pennsylvania, April 1, 1782. Investments and deposits by and in the Bank had become very large, and to repeal its charter was to violate a contract. The attack was in the interest of paper money, of which there was a large issue. The repeal had to be submitted to popular suffrage, and even Cheet-ham admits that Paine's pamphlet "probably averted the act of despotism." The pamphlet was entitled, "Dissertations on Government, the Affairs of the Bank, and Paper Money" (54 pages 8vo). It was written and printed, Paine says in his preface (dated February 18, 1786), "during the short recess of the Assembly." This was between December 22d and February 26th. The first fourteen pages of the work are devoted to a consideration of general principles. Englishmen who receive their constitutional instruction from Walter Bagehot and Albert Dicey will find in this introduction by Paine the foundation of their Republic. In discussing "sovereignty" he points out that the term, when applied to a people, has a different meaning from the arbitrariness it signifies in a monarchy. "Despotism may be more effectually acted by many over a few, than by one over all." "A republic is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will." The distinct powers of the legislature are stated--those of legislation and those of agency. "All laws are acts, but all acts are not laws." Laws are for every individual; they may be altered. Acts of agency or negotiation are deeds and contracts.