#8220;Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the properobjects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, insupposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island,” Paine’s logic is uncanny.Therefore, this assertion can be construed as common sense when studied andcomprehended by the mass of society. Another way in which nature has decided thatAmerica should be independent of British rule is the simple, common sense fact that thetwo bodies of land are separated by thousands of miles of ocean. How can any “parentcountry” possibly govern its colonial establishments if they are more than three thousandmiles apart? In two words, they cannot. That being said, Paine makes one more ratherhumorous remark as to why nature has decided that monarchial government is relativelyevil. He testifies that nature disapproves of it, “…otherwise she would not so frequentlyturn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion. In this case, the “lion” representsthe king of England or any other sovereign for that matter. As one can see, religion andnature both play an important role in Paine’s argument for independence. Furthermore,these two concepts offer integral support as to why Thomas Paine titled his essayCommon Sense. He hopes that his “normal minded” colonists will attempt to use their“ability to judge and reason” in accordance to the aforementioned “original principles”illustrated by religion and nature. As observed in the essay, his attitudes towardsgovernment and society are quite clear and discernible. It was his aspiration that theessay would spark his fellow colonists into taking a more revolutionary position against agovernment that had exploited and demoralized their existence as free humanbeings—and that they did. Word Count: 901 ...
