I agree that it sound as though Twain cribbed from Paine, though I can't pull
the exact quote. It seemed odd and interesting that the edition Wes was using
had been edited by Moncure Daniel Conway. Is this the same Moncure Conway who
served as SLC's British representative in th 1870's and beyond? His son? Was
SLC's friend Conway an expert on Paine? Seems Wes might have tumbled to the
genesis of SLC's anti-religious rhetoric, and simultaneously to how the ideas
got to SLC in the first place.