Common Sense.

Paine goes on to discuss the British form of governance, which brings forth one observation which I deem a self-evident truth that ‘only has to be stated so that it becomes obvious’.

The nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to the description of things which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible within the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind.

His point is that the king is appointed by a power which people claim exist, but which in fact does not exist. And monarchy is often undesirable because it excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. By making the crown an overbearing part of the English Constitution, though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the crown in the possession of the key.

The next point that he adopted, concerning the nature and source of this special form of governance, is much more contentious:

It arises as much or more from national pride than reason. As a man who is attached to a prostitute is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in form of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.