Complete Works of Edmund Burke
Page 1
The Complete Works of
EDMUND BURKE
(1729-1797)
Contents
The Books
A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY
A PHILOSOPHICAL ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL
AN ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA
AN ESSAY TOWARDS AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE ENGLISH HISTORY
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF A LATE SHORT ADMINISTRATION
OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE STATE OF THE NATION
THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS
THE LETTERS OF VALENS
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIA
A REPRESENTATION TO HIS MAJESTY, MOVED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ARTICLES OF CHARGE OF HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ESQUIRE
REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE
APPEAL FROM THE NEW TO THE OLD WHIGS
THOUGHTS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS
THOUGHTS ON THE PROSPECT OF A REGICIDE PEACE
THREE MEMORIALS ON FRENCH AFFAIRS
THOUGHTS AND DETAILS ON SCARCITY
THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
The Speeches
LIST OF SPEECHES
The Letters
LIST OF LETTERS
The Biographies
INTRODUCTION TO EDMUND BURKE by Sidney Carleton Newsom
EDMUND BURKE by John Morley
The Delphi Classics Catalogue
© Delphi Classics 2016
Version 1
The Complete Works of
EDMUND BURKE
By Delphi Classics, 2016
COPYRIGHT
Complete Works of Edmund Burke
First published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by Delphi Classics.
© Delphi Classics, 2016.
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The Books
Dublin, Ireland — Burke’s birthplace
‘Dublin’ by S. Brocas — a view of eighteenth century Dublin
The River Blackwater at Fermoy, Ireland — as a child Burke spent time away from the unhealthy air of Dublin with his mother’s family in the Blackwater Valley in County Cork.
A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY
A VIEW OF THE MISERIES AND EVILS ARISING TO MANKIND
First published in 1756, A Vindication of Natural Society is a satire of Lord Bolingbroke’s deism. Burke confronted Bolingbroke not in the sphere of religion but civil society and government, arguing that his arguments against revealed religion could apply to all institutions. Burke’s book was so similar in style to Bolingbroke’s work, that Burke’s ironic intention was missed by some readers, leading Burke in his preface to the second edition to state clearly that A Vindication of Natural Society was a satire. Nonetheless, this work was considered by William Godwin to be the first literary expression of philosophical anarchism.
The preface describes the essay as a riposte to the philosophy of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, whose Collected Works and Letters had been published by David Mallet in five volumes in 1754. In this apologetic preface, he wrote that the book was inspired by “seeing every Mode of Religion attacked in a lively Manner, and the Foundation of every Virtue, and of all Government, sapped with great Art and much Ingenuity” in Lord Bolingbroke’s collected Works. Burke contrasts Natural Society with Political Society beginning with a distrust of the Mind, which “every Day invents some new artificial Rule to guide that Nature which if left to itself were the best and surest Guide.” He proposes to set out to identify those “unalterable Relations which Providence has ordained that every thing should bear to every other. These Relations, which are Truth itself, the Foundation of Virtue, and consequently, the only Measures of Happiness.”
In the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment, the author expresses every confidence in the cumulative Progress of the human condition: “The Fabrick of Superstition has in this our Age and Nation received much ruder Shocks than it had ever felt before; and through the Chinks and Breaches of our Prison, we see such Glimmerings of Light, and feel such refreshing Airs of Liberty, as daily raise our Ardor for more. The Miseries derived to Mankind from Superstition, under the Name of Religion, and of ecclesiastical Tyranny under the Name of Church Government, have been clearly and usefully exposed.” In his swift survey of history, Burke finds nothing but “Tumults, Rebellions, Massacres, Assassinations, Proscriptions, and a Series of Horror” and remarks that “All Empires have been cemented in Blood” as the casualties mount in the millions, with cruelties perfected by technology.
Contrasted with natural Liberty and natural Religion, Burke sets three general forms of government, which he describes with the same detail as employed in Juvenal’s Satires: Despotism, the simplest and most universal, where “unbounded Power proceeds Step by Step, until it has eradicated every laudable Principle”; Aristocracy, which is scarcely better, as “a Genoese, or a Venetian Republick, is a concealed Despotism”; and giddy Democracy, where the common people are “intoxicated with the Flatteries of their Orators”:
The first edition’s title page
The opening of ‘Vindication of Natural Society’ in the first edition
CONTENTS
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND OCTAVO EDITION.
PREFACE.
A LETTER TO LORD * * * *.
‘Edmund Burke’ by John Chapman, published 13 December 1798
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke by Alexis Simon Belle, c. 1712. Bolingbroke (1678-1751) was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND OCTAVO EDITION.
A new edition of the works of Mr. Burke having been called for by the public, the opportunity has been taken to make some slight changes, it is hoped for the better.
A different distribution of the contents, while it has made the volumes, with the exception of the first and sixth, more nearly equal in their respective bulk, has, at the same time, been fortunately found to produce a more methodical arrangement of the whole. The first and second volumes, as before, severally contain those literary and philosophical works by which Mr. Burke was known previous to the commencement of his public life as a statesman, and the political pieces which were written by him between the time of his first becoming connected with the Marquis of Rockingham and his being chosen member for Bristol. In the third are comprehended all his speeches and pamphlets from his first arrival at Bristol, as a candida
te, in the year 1774, to his farewell address from the hustings of that city, in the year 1780. What he himself published relative to the affairs of India occupies the fourth volume. The remaining four comprise his works since the French Revolution, with the exception of the Letter to Lord Kenmare on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics, which was probably inserted where it stands from its relation to the subject of the Letter addressed by him, at a later period, to Sir Hercules Langrishe. With the same exception, too, strict regard has been paid to chronological order, which, in the last edition, was in some instances broken, to insert pieces that wore not discovered till it was too late to introduce them in their proper places.
In the Appendix to the Speech on the Nabob of Arcot’s Debts the references were found to be confused, and, in many places, erroneous. This probably had arisen from the circumstance that a larger and differently constructed appendix seems to have been originally designed by Mr. Burke, which, however, he afterwards abridged and altered, while the speech and the notes upon it remained as they were. The text and the documents that support it have throughout been accommodated to each other.
The orthography has been in many cases altered, and an attempt made to reduce it to some certain standard. The rule laid down for the discharge of this task was, that, whenever Mr. Burke could be perceived to have been uniform in his mode of spelling, that was considered as decisive; but where he varied, (and as he was in the habit of writing by dictation, and leaving to others the superintendence of the press, he was peculiarly liable to variations of this sort) the best received authorities were directed to be followed. The reader, it is trusted, will find this object, too much disregarded in modern books, has here been kept in view throughout. The quotations which are interspersed through the works of Mr Burke, and which were frequently made by him from memory, have been generally compared with the original authors. Several mistakes in printing, of one word for another, by which the sense was either perverted or obscured, are now rectified. Two or three small insertions have also been made from a quarto copy corrected by Mr. Burke himself. From the same source something more has been drawn in the shape of notes, to which are subscribed his initials. Of this number is the explanation of that celebrated phrase, “the swinish multitude”: an explanation which was uniformly given by him to his friends, in conversation on the subject. But another note will probably interest the reader still more, as being strongly expressive of that parental affection which formed so amiable a feature in the character of Mr. Burke. It is in page 203 of Vol. V., where he points out a considerable passage as having been supplied by his “lost son”. Several other parts, possibly amounting altogether to a page or thereabout, were indicated in the same manner; but, as they in general consist of single sentences, and as the meaning of the mark by which they were distinguished was not actually expressed, it has not been thought necessary to notice them particularly.
A
VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY:
OR,
A VIEW OF THE MISERIES AND EVILS ARISING TO MANKIND
FROM EVERY SPECIES OF ARTIFICIAL SOCIETY.
IN A LETTER TO LORD * * * *,
BY A LATE NOBLE WRITER.
1756.
PREFACE.
Before the philosophical works of Lord Bolingbroke had appeared, great things were expected from the leisure of a man, who, from the splendid scene of action in which his talents had enabled him to make so conspicuous a figure, had retired to employ those talents in the investigation of truth. Philosophy began to congratulate herself upon such a proselyte from the world of business, and hoped to have extended her power under the auspices of such a leader. In the midst of these pleasing expectations, the works themselves at last appeared in full body, and with great pomp. Those who searched in them for new discoveries in the mysteries of nature; those who expected something which might explain or direct the operations of the mind; those who hoped to see morality illustrated and enforced; those who looked for new helps to society and government; those who desired to see the characters and passions of mankind delineated; in short, all who consider such things as philosophy, and require some of them at least in every philosophical work, all these were certainly disappointed; they found the landmarks of science precisely in their former places: and they thought they received but a poor recompense for this disappointment, in seeing every mode of religion attacked in a lively manner, and the foundation of every virtue, and of all government, sapped with great art and much ingenuity. What advantage do we derive from such writings? What delight can a man find in employing a capacity which might be usefully exerted for the noblest purposes, in a sort of sullen labor, in which, if the author could succeed, he is obliged to own, that nothing could be more fatal to mankind than his success?
I cannot conceive how this sort of writers propose to compass the designs they pretend to have in view, by the instruments which they employ. Do they pretend to exalt the mind of man, by proving him no better than a beast? Do they think to enforce the practice of virtue, by denying that vice and virtue are distinguished by good or ill fortune here, or by happiness or misery hereafter? Do they imagine they shall increase our piety, and our reliance on God, by exploding his providence, and insisting that he is neither just nor good? Such are the doctrines which, sometimes concealed, sometimes openly and fully avowed, are found to prevail throughout the writings of Lord Bolingbroke; and such are the reasonings which this noble writer and several others have been pleased to dignify with the name of philosophy. If these are delivered in a specious manner, and in a style above the common, they cannot want a number of admirers of as much docility as can be wished for in disciples. To these the editor of the following little piece has addressed it: there is no reason to conceal the design of it any longer.
The design was to show that, without the exertion of any considerable forces, the same engines which were employed for the destruction of religion, might be employed with equal success for the subversion of government; and that specious arguments might be used against those things which they, who doubt of everything else, will never permit to be questioned. It is an observation which I think Isocrates makes in one of his orations against the sophists, that it is far more easy to maintain a wrong cause, and to support paradoxical opinions to the satisfaction of a common auditory, than to establish a doubtful truth by solid and conclusive arguments. When men find that something can be said in favor of what, on the very proposal, they have thought utterly indefensible, they grow doubtful of their own reason; they are thrown into a sort of pleasing surprise; they run along with the speaker, charmed and captivated to find such a plentiful harvest of reasoning, where all seemed barren and unpromising. This is the fairy land of philosophy. And it very frequently happens, that those pleasing impressions on the imagination subsist and produce their effect, even after the understanding has been satisfied of their unsubstantial nature. There is a sort of gloss upon ingenious falsehoods that dazzles the imagination, but which neither belongs to, nor becomes the sober aspect of truth. I have met with a quotation in Lord Coke’s Reports that pleased me very much, though I do not know from whence he has taken it: “Interdum fucata falsitas (says he), in multis est probabilior, at sæpe rationibus vincit nudam veritatem.” In such cases the writer has a certain fire and alacrity inspired into him by a consciousness, that, let it fare how it will with the subject, his ingenuity will be sure of applause; and this alacrity becomes much greater if he acts upon the offensive, by the impetuosity that always accompanies an attack, and the unfortunate propensity which mankind have to the finding and exaggerating faults. The editor is satisfied that a mind which has no restraint from a sense of its own weakness, of its subordinate rank in the creation, and of the extreme danger of letting the imagination loose upon some subjects, may very plausibly attack everything the most excellent and venerable; that it would not be difficult to criticise the creation itself; and that if we were to examine the divine fabrics by our ideas of reason and fitness, and to use the same method
of attack by which some men have assaulted revealed religion, we might with as good color, and with the same success, make the wisdom and power of God in his creation appear to many no better than foolishness. There is an air of plausibility which accompanies vulgar reasonings and notions, taken from the beaten circle of ordinary experience, that is admirably suited to the narrow capacities of some, and to the laziness of others. But this advantage is in a great measure lost, when a painful, comprehensive survey of a very complicated matter, and which requires a great variety of considerations, is to be made; when we must seek in a profound subject, not only for arguments, but for new materials of argument, their measures and their method of arrangement; when we must go out of the sphere of our ordinary ideas, and when we can never walk surely, but by being sensible of our blindness. And this we must do, or we do nothing, whenever we examine the result of a reason which is not our own. Even in matters which are, as it were, just within our reach, what would become of the world, if the practice of all moral duties, and the foundations of society, rested upon having their reasons made clear and demonstrative to every individual?
The editor knows that the subject of this letter is not so fully handled as obviously it might; it was not his design to say all that could possibly be said. It had been inexcusable to fill a large volume with the abuse of reason; nor would such an abuse have been tolerable, even for a few pages, if some under-plot, of more consequence than the apparent design, had not been carried on.
Some persons have thought that the advantages of the state of nature ought to have been more fully displayed. This had undoubtedly been a very ample subject for declamation; but they do not consider the character of the piece. The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own. If some inaccuracies in calculation, in reasoning, or in method, be found, perhaps these will not be looked upon as faults by the admirers of Lord Bolingbroke; who will, the editor is afraid, observe much more of his lordship’s character in such particulars of the following letter, than they are likely to find of that rapid torrent of an impetuous and overbearing eloquence, and the variety of rich imagery for which that writer is justly admired.