Question

select the correct answer.
read this excerpt from thomas paines essay \common sense\.

mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance; the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be accounted for, and that without having recourse to the harsh, ill - sounding names of oppression and avarice. oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches; and though avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

but there is another and greater distinction, for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of men into kings and subjects. male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.

what is thomas paines central claim in this excerpt?

a. there will always be a distinction between kings and their subjects.

b. the equality that humans enjoyed during creation has been ruined because of war and famine.

c. not all people who belonged to the upper sections of society were cruel.

d. the differences between the kings and the subjects were not religious or natural.

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Explanation:

Thomas Paine states that human equality at creation was disrupted by later circumstances, and specifically argues that the division of people into kings and subjects has no valid natural or religious basis, unlike other distinctions like male/female or good/bad. Option A is incorrect because Paine questions this distinction, not accepts it as permanent. Option B is wrong because the excerpt does not cite war and famine as the cause of lost equality. Option C is irrelevant, as the excerpt does not discuss the cruelty of upper-class people. Option D directly matches Paine's central claim about the king-subject distinction.

Answer:

D. The differences between the kings and the subjects were not religious or natural.