Complete Works of Edmund Burke

by Edmund Burke

  Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosæ

  Addiderant; rutili tres ignis, et alitis austri:

  Fulgores nunc terrificos, sonitumque, metumque

  Miscebant operi, flammisque sequacibus iras.

  This seems to me admirably sublime: yet if we attend coolly to the kind of sensible images which a combination of ideas of this sort must form, the chimeras of madmen cannot appear more wild and absurd than such a picture. “Three rays of twisted showers, three of watery clouds, three of fire, and three of the winged south wind; then mixed they in the work terrific lightnings, and sound, and fear, and anger, with pursuing flames.” This strange composition is formed into a gross body; it is hammered by the Cyclops, it is in part polished, and partly continues rough. The truth is, if poetry gives us a noble assemblage of words corresponding to many noble ideas, which are connected by circumstances of time or place, or related to each other as cause and effect, or associated in any natural way, they may be moulded together in any form, and perfectly answer their end. The picturesque connection is not demanded; because no real picture is formed; nor is the effect of the description at all the less upon this account. What is said of Helen by Priam and the old men of his council, is generally thought to give us the highest possible idea of that fatal beauty.

  Οὐ νέμεσις, Τρὢας καὶ ἐὔκνήμιδας ‘Αχ-αιοὺς

  Τοιἣδ’ ἀμφὶ γυναικὶ πολὺν χρόνον ἄλγεα πάσχ-ειν.

  Αἰνὢς ἀθανάτησι θεἣς εἰς ὦπα ἔοικεν.

  “They cried, No wonder such celestial charms

  For nine long years have set the world in arms;

  What winning graces! what majestic mien!

  She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen.”

  POPE.

  Here is not one word said of the particulars of her beauty; nothing which can in the least help us to any precise idea of her person; but yet we are much more touched by this manner of mentioning her, than by those long and labored descriptions of Helen, whether handed down by tradition, or formed by fancy, which are to be met with in some authors. I am sure it affects me much more than the minute description which Spenser has given of Belphebe; though I own that there are parts, in that description, as there are in all the descriptions of that excellent writer, extremely fine and poetical. The terrible picture which Lucretius has drawn of religion in order to display the magnanimity of his philosophical hero in opposing her, is thought to be designed with great boldness and spirit: —

  Humana ante oculos foedè cum vita jaceret,

  In terris, oppressa gravi sub religione,

  Quæ caput e coeli regionibus ostendebat

  Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans;

  Primus Graius homo mortales tollere contra

  Est oculos ausus.

  What idea do you derive from so excellent a picture? none at all, most certainly: neither has the poet said a single word which might in the least serve to mark a single limb or feature of the phantom, which he intended to represent in all the horrors imagination can conceive. In reality, poetry and rhetoric do not succeed in exact description so well as painting does; their business is, to affect rather by sympathy than imitation; to display rather the effect of things on the mind of the speaker, or of others, than to present a clear idea of the things themselves. This is their most extensive province, and that in which they succeed the best.

  SECTION VI.

  POETRY NOT STRICTLY AN IMITATIVE ART.

  Hence we may observe that poetry, taken in its most general sense, cannot with strict propriety be called an art of imitation. It is indeed an imitation so far as it describes the manners and passions of men which their words can express; where animi motus effert interprete lingua. There it is strictly imitation; and all merely dramatic poetry is of this sort. But descriptive poetry operates chiefly by substitution; by the means of sounds, which by custom have the effect of realities. Nothing is an imitation further than as it resembles some other thing; and words undoubtedly have no sort of resemblance to the ideas for which they stand.

  SECTION VII.

  HOW WORDS INFLUENCE THE PASSIONS.

  Now, as words affect, not by any original power, but by representation, it might be supposed, that their influence over the passions should be but light; yet it is quite otherwise; for we find by experience, that eloquence and poetry are as capable, nay indeed much more capable, of making deep and lively impressions than any other arts, and even than nature itself in very many cases. And this arises chiefly from these three causes. First, that we take an extraordinary part in the passions of others, and that we are easily affected and brought into sympathy by any tokens which are shown of them; and there are no tokens which can express all the circumstances of most passions so fully as words; so that if a person speaks upon any subject, he can not only convey the subject to you, but likewise the manner in which he is himself affected by it. Certain it is, that the influence of most things on our passions is not so much from the things themselves, as from our opinions concerning them; and these again depend very much on the opinions of other men, conveyable for the most part by words only. Secondly, there are many things of a very affecting nature, which can seldom occur in the reality, but the words that represent them often do; and thus they have an opportunity of making a deep impression and taking root in the mind, whilst the idea of the reality was transient; and to some perhaps never really occurred in any shape, to whom it is notwithstanding very affecting, as war, death, famine, &c. Besides many ideas have never been at all presented to the senses of any men but by words, as God, angels, devils, heaven, and hell, all of which have however a great influence over the passions. Thirdly, by words we have it in our power to make such combinations as we cannot possibly do otherwise. By this power of combining we are able, by the addition of well-chosen circumstances, to give a new life and force to the simple object. In painting we may represent any fine figure we please; but we never can give it those enlivening touches which it may receive from words. To represent an angel in a picture, you can only draw a beautiful young man winged: but what painting can furnish out anything so grand as the addition of one word, “the angel of the Lord”? It is true, I have here no clear idea; but these words affect the mind more than the sensible image did; which is all I contend for. A picture of Priam dragged to the altar’s foot, and there murdered, if it were well executed, would undoubtedly be very moving; but there are very aggravating circumstances, which it could never represent:

  Sanguine foedantem quos ipse sacraverat ignes.

  As a further instance, let us consider those lines of Milton, where he describes the travels of the fallen angels through their dismal habitation:

  “O’er many a dark and dreary vale

  They passed, and many a region dolorous;

  O’er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp;

  Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death,

  A universe of death.”

  Here is displayed the force of union in

  “Rocks, caves, lakes, dens, bogs, fens, and shades”

  which yet would lose the greatest part of their effect, if they were not the

  “Rocks, caves, lakes, dens, bogs, fens, and shades — of Death.”

  This idea or this affection caused by a word, which nothing but a word could annex to the others, raises a very great degree of the sublime, and this sublime is raised yet higher by what follows, a “universe of death.” Here are again two ideas not presentable but by language, and an union of them great and amazing beyond conception; if they may properly be called ideas which present no distinct image to the mind; but still it will be difficult to conceive how words can move the passions which belong to real objects, without representing these objects clearly. This is difficult to us, because we do not sufficiently distinguish, in our observations upon language, between a clear expression and a strong expression. These are frequently confounded with e
ach other, though they are in reality extremely different. The former regards the understanding, the latter belongs to the passions. The one describes a thing as it is, the latter describes it as it is felt. Now, as there is a moving tone of voice, an impassioned countenance, an agitated gesture, which affect independently of the things about which they are exerted, so there are words, and certain dispositions of words, which being peculiarly devoted to passionate subjects, and always used by those who are under the influence of any passion, touch and move us more than those which far more clearly and distinctly express the subject-matter. We yield to sympathy what we refuse to description. The truth is, all verbal description, merely as naked description, though never so exact, conveys so poor and insufficient an idea of the thing described, that it could scarcely have the smallest effect, if the speaker did not call in to his aid those modes of speech that mark a strong and lively feeling in himself. Then, by the contagion of our passions, we catch a fire already kindled in another, which probably might never have been struck out by the object described. Words, by strongly conveying the passions by those means which we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their weakness in other respects. It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength. The French language has that perfection and that defect. Whereas the Oriental tongues, and in general the languages of most unpolished people, have a great force and energy of expression, and this is but natural. Uncultivated people are but ordinary observers of things, and not critical in distinguishing them; but, for that reason they admire more, and are more affected with what they see, and therefore express themselves in a warmer and more passionate manner. If the affection be well conveyed, it will work its effect without any clear idea, often without any idea at all of the thing which has originally given rise to it.

  It might be expected, from the fertility of the subject, that I should consider poetry, as it regards the sublime and beautiful, more at large; but it must be observed, that in this light it has been often and well handled already. It was not my design to enter into the criticism of the sublime and beautiful in any art, but to attempt to lay down such principles as may tend to ascertain, to distinguish, and to form a sort of standard for them; which purposes I thought might be best effected by an inquiry into the properties of such things in nature, as raise love and astonishment in us; and by showing in what manner they operated to produce these passions. Words were only so far to be considered as to show upon what principle they were capable of being the representatives of these natural things, and by what powers they were able to affect us often as strongly as the things they represent, and sometimes much more strongly.

  AN ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN AMERICA

  By Edmund Burke and William Bourke

  Burke’s essay on the Sublime and Beautiful attained him a rapid popularity and he soon found himself courted by all the eminent men of his time. David Garrick was already one of his friends, as well as the portraitist Joshua Reynolds, Soame Jenyns, Lord Lyttleton, William Warburton, David Hume and Samuel Johnson. In spite of this popularity, however, his progress continued slow and for three years yet, he had to occupy himself with periodical writing, devoting his leisure principally to political subjects. In 1757 he published this collaboration with his cousin, William Bourke, titled An Account of the European Settlement in America. The large and meticulously researched book demonstrates how carefully at this date Burke had studied the condition of the American colonies.

  The first edition’s title page

  CONTENTS

  VOLUME I.

  THE PREFACE.

  DETAILED CONTENTS

  PART I. The discovery of America, and the reduction of Mexico and Peru.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP. III.

  CHAP. IV.

  CHAP. V.

  CHAP. VI.

  CHAP. VII.

  CHAP. VIII.

  CHAP. IX.

  CHAP. X.

  CHAP. XI.

  CHAP. XII.

  CHAP. XIII.

  CHAP. XIV.

  CHAP. XV.

  CHAP. XVI.

  CHAP. XVI.

  CHAP. XVII.

  PART II. The Manners of the Americans.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP. III.

  CHAP. IV.

  PART III. Spanish America.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP. III.

  CHAP. IV.

  CHAP. V.

  CHAP. VI.

  CHAP. VII. NEW MEXICO.

  CHAP. VIII. PERU.

  CHAP IX,

  CHAP. X.

  CHAP. XI.

  CHAP. XII. CHILI.

  CHAP. XIII.

  CHAP. XIV. PARAGUAY.

  CHAP. XV.

  CHAP. XVI.

  PART IV. The Portuguese Settlements.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP III,

  CHAP. IV.

  CHAP. V.

  VOLUME II.

  PART V. The French Settlements.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP. III.

  CHAP. IV.

  CHAP. V.

  CHAP VI.

  CHAP. VII. The Dutch Settlements.

  PART VI. The English Settlements.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP. III.

  CHAP. IV.

  CHAP. V.

  CHAP. VI.

  CHAP. VII.

  CHAP. VIII.

  CHAP. IX.

  CHAP. X.

  CHAP. XI.

  CHAP. XII.

  PART VII. British North America.

  CHAP. I.

  CHAP. II.

  CHAP. III.

  CHAP. IV.

  CHAP. V.

  CHAP. VI.

  CHAP. VII.

  CHAP. VIII. New York, New Jersey, and Pensylvania.

  CHAP. IX.

  CHAP. X.

  CHAP. XI.

  CHAP. XII.

  CHAP. XIII.

  CHAP. XIV. VIRGINIA.

  CHAP. XV.

  CHAP. XVI.

  CHAP. XVII.

  CHAP. XVIII. MARYLAND.

  CHAP. XIX. CAROLINA.

  CHAP. XX.

  CHAP. XXI.

  CHAP. XXII.

  CHAP. XXIII.

  CHAP. XXIV.

  CHAP. XXV. GEORGIA.

  CHAP. XXVI.

  CHAP. XXVII. NOVA SCOTIA.

  CHAP. XXVIII. Newfoundland, the Bermudas, and the Bahamas.

  CHAP. XXIX. HUDSON’s BAY.

  CHAP. XXX. The Government of the English Colonies, and the Paper Currency.

  How the book opens in the original publication

  VOLUME I.

  THE PREFACE.

  THE affairs of America have lately engaged a great deal of the public attention. Before the present war there were but a very few who made the history of that quarter of the world any part of their study; though the matter is certainly very curious in itself, and extremely interesting to us as a trading people.

  The history of a country which, though vast in extent, is the property of only four nations; and which, though peopled probably for a series of ages, is only known to the rest of the world for about two centuries, does not naturally, afford matter for many volumes. Yet it is certain, that to acquire a proper knowledge of the history of the events in America, an idea of it’s present state, and a competent judgment of it’s trade, a great deal of reading has been found requisite. And I may add, that the reading on many parts of this subject is dry and disgusting; that authors have treated on it, some without a sufficient knowledge of the subject, and others in such a manner as no knowledge of the subject in the author could induce any body to become readers. That some are loaded with a lumber of matter that can interest very few, and that others obscure the truth in many particulars, to gratify the low prejudices
of parties, and I may say of nations. Whatever is written by the English settled in our colonies, is to be read with great caution; because very few of them write without a bias to the interest of the particular province to which they belong, or perhaps to a particular faction in that province. It is only by comparing the printed accounts with one another, and those with the best private informations, and correcting all by authentic matter of record, that one can discover the truth; and this hath been a matter of some difficulty.

  With regard to the foreign settlements, recourse was had to the best printed accounts of travellers and others; and in some points to private information from intelligent traders. The materials for the foreign settlements are far from being as perfect, or as much to be depended upon as we could wish; it was very seldom that I could venture to transcribe any thing directly from them without some addition or some corrective.

  In the historical part of this work, I fixed my eye principally on some capital matters, which might the most fully engage and best reward the attention of the reader; and in treating of those I dwelt only upon such events as seemed to me to afford some political instruction, or to open the characters of the principal actors in those great scenes. The affairs which seemed most worthy of an account of any length, are those splendid and remarkable events of the discovery of America, and the conquest of the only two civilized kingdoms it contained.

  In treating of other parts, I have given so much of the history of each country as may serve to shew, when and upon what principles it was planted, to enable the reader the better to judge of it’s present condition. These accounts are very short; and considering of what sort of matter their histories are composed, I believe I shall deserve as much for what I have omitted, as for what I have inserted. If I could not write well upon any subject, I have endeavoured always to write concisely.