Page "The Age of Reason" Paragraph 2

Most of Paine's arguments had long been available to the educated elite, but by presenting them in an engaging and irreverent style, he made deism appealing and accessible to a mass audience.

The book was also inexpensive, putting it within the reach of a large number of buyers.

Fearing the spread of what they viewed as potentially revolutionary ideas, the British government prosecuted printers and booksellers who tried to publish and distribute it.

Paine nevertheless inspired and guided many British freethinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.