Paila is, according to the Puninas (q. v.), one of the disciples of Vyasa (q. v.), the reputed arranger of the Vedas (q. v.) ; he was taught by the latter the Rig- Veda, and, on his (ifirt, communicated this knowledge to B.Tsh- kali and ludrapramati. This tradition, therefore, im- plies that Paila was one of the earliest compilers of the Rig-Veda.
Pain (MvsTiCAi.), a certain indescribable agony which has been believed by mystics to be necessary to prepare them for a state of rapture. " This mysterious pain," says Mr. Vaughan {Hours u-ith the Afystics), "is no new thing in the history of mysticism. It is one of the trials of mystical initiation. It is the death essen- tial to the superhuman height. AV'ith St. Theresa the physical nature contributes it much more largely than usual; and in her map of the mystic's progress it is lo-
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cated at a more advanced period of the journej'. St. Francis of Assisi lay sick for t-vvo years under prepara- tory miseries. Catharine of Siena bore five years of privation, and was tormented by devils besides. For five j'ears, and yet again for more than three times five, Magdalena de Pazzi endured such aridity that she believed herself forsaken of God. Balthazzar Alvarez suffered for sixteen years before he earned his extraor- dinary illumination. Theresa, there can be little doubt, regarded her fainting-spells, hysteria, cramps, and ner- vous seizures as divine visitations. In their action and reaction body and soul were continually injuring each other. The excitement of hallucination would produce an attack of her disorder, and the disease again foster the hallucination. Servitude, whether of mind or of body, introduces maladies unknown to freedom." "These suiferings," adds the same writer, " are attributed by the mystics to the surpassing nature of the truths manifest- ed to our finite faculties (as the sun-glare pains the eye) ; to the anguish involved in the surrender of every ordi- nary support or enjoyment, when the soul, suspended (as Theresa describes it) between heaven and earth, can de- rive solace from neither; to the intensity of the aspira- tions awakened, rendering those limitations of our con- dition here, which detain us from God, an intolerable oppression ; and to despair, by which the soul is tried, being left to believe herself forsaken by the God she loves." See Mysticisji.
Paine, James, a Presbyterian minister, was born near Londonderry, Ireland, Dec. 25, 1801. He received that early training in spiritual things for which the Presbyterians of the mother country are proverbial. During the year 18"20 his parents emigrated to the Unit- ed States, and became members of Dr. Baxter's congre- gation in Lexington, Va., where he professed religion, and soon after turned his thoughts to the ministry. He graduated with honor at Washington College, Lexing- ton, Va. ; studied theology in the seminar}' at Princeton, N. J. ; was licensed by Lexington Presbytery in 1829, ordained in 1830, and labored as a missionary for several years at Warm Springs and New Monmouth churches, Va. He afterwards took charge of Fairfield and Timber Ridge Churches, Va. It was here that the best j-ears of his life were spent ; ever ready to preach, he went in and out before his people, leading them like a true shepherd for twenty-three 3-ears. From thence he was called to the Church at Somerville, Tenn., where he continued to labor until his death, April 7, 1860. Mr. Paine, though not an aiithor, often wrote for the press. His preaching was clear and expository ; his style free from all affecta- tion or vagueness; his all-conquering desire was a sin- gle burning zeal to glorify God in the salvation of souls. See Wilson, Presh. Hist. Almanac, 18(i 1 , p. 104. (J. L. S.)
Paine, Thomas, a noted American speculative writer, and prominent political character in the colo- nial history of this countrj', whose influence upon his day and generation was unfavorable to Christianity, though not altogether to civilization, deserves a place here for his repeated attempts to modlf}' the religious thought of this country.
Life. — Paine was an Englishman b}' birth, and saw the light of this world Jan. 29, 1737, at Thetford, in the count}' of Norfolk. His father, who was a Quaker, brought him up to his own business, that of a stay- maker. At the age of twenty Thomas removed to London, where he worked some time at his business. He then went to Sandwich, in Kent, where, in 17G0, he married the daughter of an exciseman, and obtained a place in the excise, but retained it onlj' about a j'ear, and then became an assistant at a school in the neigh- borhood of London. After leaving this situation he was again employed in the excise, and was situated at Lewes, in Sussex. Here he had gained some reputa- tion by various pieces of poetry, and had been selected by the excisemen of the neighborhood to draw up The Case of the Officers f^f Excise, with Remarks on the