The next witness is Willet Hicks, a Quaker preacher. He says that during the last illness of Mr. Paine he visited him almost daily, and that Paine died firmly convinced of the truth of the relig- ious opinions he had given to his fellow-men. It was to this same Willet Hicks that Paine applied for permission to be buried in the cemetery of the Quakers. Permission was refused. This refusal settles the question of recantation. If he had re- canted, of course there could have been no objection to his body being buried by the side of the best hypocrites on the earth. If Paine recanted why should he be denied "a little earth for charity"? Had he recanted, it would have been regarded as a vast and splendid triumph for the gospel. It would with much noise and pomp and ostentation have been heralded about the world. I received the following letter to-day. The writer is well know in this city, and is a man of high character: Peoria, Oct. 8th, 1877. Robert G. Ingersoll, Esteemed Friend: My parents were Friends (Quakers). My father died when I was very young. The elderly and middle- aged Friends visited at my mother's house. We 462 lived in the city of New York. Among the number I distinctly remember Elias Hicks, Willet Hicks, and a Mr.-Day, who was a bookseller in Pearl street. There were many others, whose names I do not now remember. The subject of the recanta- tion by Thomas Paine of his views about the Bible in his last illness, or at any other time, was dis- cussed by them in my presence at different times. I learned from them that some of them had attended upon Thomas Paine in his last sickness and minis- tered to his wants up to the time of his death. And upon the question of whether he did recant there was but one expression. They all said that he did not recant in any manner. I often heard them say they wished he had recanted. In fact, according to them, the nearer he approached death the more positive he appeared to be in his con- victions. These conversations were from 1820 to 1822. I was at that time from ten to twelve years old, but these conversations impressed themselves upon me because many thoughtless people then blamed the Society of Friends for their kindness to that "arch Infidel," Thomas Paine.. Truly yours, A. C. Hankinson. 463 A few days ago I received the following letter: Albany, New York, Sept. 27, 1877. Dear Sir: It is over twenty years ago that pro- fessionally I made the acquaintance of John Hogeboom,