worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose 
sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves 
unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion.	3

  Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their 
fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical 
judgment, which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every 
one well knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take 
any precautions against their own fallibility, or admit the 
supposition that any opinion, of which they feel very certain, may be 
one of the examples of the error to which they acknowledge themselves 
to be liable. Absolute princes, or others who are accustomed to 
unlimited deference, usually feel this complete confidence in their 
own opinions on nearly all subjects. People more happily situated, 
who sometimes hear their opinions disputed, and are not wholly unused 
to be set right when they are wrong, place the same unbounded 
reliance only on such of their opinions as are shared by all who 
surround them, or to whom they habitually defer: for in proportion to 
a man's want of confidence in his own solitary judgment, does he 
usually repose, with implicit trust, on the infallibility of "the 
world" in general. And the world, to each individual, means the part 
of it with which he comes in contact; his party, his sect, his 
church, his class of society: the man may be called, by comparison, 
almost liberal and large-minded to whom it means anything so 
comprehensive as his own country or his own age. Nor is his faith in 
this collective authority at all shaken by his being aware that other 
ages, countries, sects, churches, classes, and parties have thought, 
and even now think, the exact reverse. He devolves upon his own world 
the responsibility of being in the right against the dissentient 
worlds of other people; and it never troubles him that mere accident 
has The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all 
mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not 
local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers 
of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections 
are interested. The laying of a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, 
declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and 
extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the 
Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; 
of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR	4
 
  P. S. The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed, with a 
View of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any Attempt to 
refute the Doctrine of Independance: As no Answer hath yet appeared, 
it is now presumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such 
a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past.	5

  Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the 
Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the 
Man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected 
with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but 
the influence of reason and principle.
Philadelphia, February 14, 1776.	6