Adams viewed Paine's "Age of Reason" not as the embodiment of the Enlightenment but as a "betrayal" of it. Despite all of these attacks, Paine never wavered in his beliefs; when he was dying, a woman came to visit him, claiming that God had instructed her to save his soul. Paine dismissed her in the same tones that he had used in "The Age of Reason": "pooh, pooh, it is not true. You were not sent with any such impertinent message... Pshaw, He would not send such a foolish ugly old woman as you about with His message."