SOURCE: "Paine Replies to Burke: Rights of Man," in Burke, Paine and the Rights of Man: A Difference of Political Opinion, Martinus Nijhoff, 1963, pp. 160-80.

In the following chapter from his book, Fennessy investigates the connection of Paine 's Rights of Man to Edmund Burke's famous indictment of the French Revolution, Reflections on the Revolution in France. Overall, Fennessy describes Paine as, first, failing to understand Burke's work and, second, making many logical errors in his own.

Paine Plans to Write on the Revolution

After writing his letter to Burke,¹ Paine stayed on in Paris, watching with approval the progress of the revolution. He now planned to take an active part in it himself, by some publication which, he hoped, would have an influence comparable to that of Common Sense in the American revolution. He was in close contact with Lafayette, who seems to have supplied him with...