Dr. John E. Roberts: "So long as human rights are sacred and their defenders held in grateful remembrance; so long as liberty has a flag flung to the skies, a sanctuary in the hearts of men; so long, upon the eternal granite of history, luminous as light and imperishable as the stars, will be engraven the name of Thomas Paine." Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll: "If to love your fellow-men more than self is goodness, Thomas Paine was good. "If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in the direction of right is greatness, Thomas Paine was great. "If to avow your principles and discharge your duty in the presence of death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a hero." "He died in the land his genius defended, under the flag he gave to the skies. Slander cannot touch him now; hatred cannot reach him more." George E. Macdonald: "O Champion, bravest in all the past! O Freedom, fairest of all the dames. Long may the pledge of your fealty last, Forever united be your names. And long as the flowers from the sod shall spring, Touched by a May day's warmth and light, A blossom and tear shall the lady bring To drop on the grave of her faithful knight." Paine was the prophet of his age. From the dim twilight of the eighteenth century his prophetic eye pierced through the intervening years to and beyond the gray dawn of the twentieth. And when he viewed man's progress and beheld his glorious destiny, this matchless seer "rang out the old, rang in the new," rang out the rule and tyranny of king, rang out the dogmas and the ghosts of priest; rang in the reign of liberty and justice, rang in the faith of Reason and Humanity. Yes, in the cause of man the battle of his life was fought, a fierce and stormy conflict. And as the night of death closed over the eventful struggle, from her accursed abode the gaunt figure of Bigotry stalked forth, and with demoniac peals of laughter danced around his prostrate form, rejoicing that her deadliest foe was gone. Her imps still live. How often do we see one of them in the pulpit take up this good man's name, and after covering it with all the slime that the venomous spirit of calumny has distilled, hold it up before his congregation, and with a counterfeited look of holy horror, affecting all the meekness of an expiring calf, rolling up the whites of his snaky eyes to cover the blackness of his brutal soul, exclaim, "This is Tom Paine!" Vile creatures! let them do their worst. Let them summon to their aid all their hideous allies. Let Ignorance array her countless hosts; let the dark shades of Prejudice becloud the sky; let Hatred rave and curse; let the darts of Calumny pierce the white breast of Truth, and Slander clothe the tongues of all their minions. They strive in vain. The Crisis is past, the Age of Reason has dawned. Common Sense is fast supplanting Superstition, the Rights of Man are bound to triumph, and the author-hero's name will gather lustre as the years roll by.