Note 127 — Part I (continued 8)

Sparks (X, 281-2) prints this letter as to Thomas Paine. Smyth, suggesting that Paine's "deistical writings" were not done before 1786, denies that Paine is the correspondent. H. H. Clark has argued shrewdly (and with evidence) that since part of The Age of Reason was written before 1781 (this M. C. Conway in his Life of Paine admits), it is not implausible that Franklin's letter was directed to Paine. ("An Historical Interpretation of Thomas Paine's Religion," University of California Chronicle, XXXV, 84, 1933.)