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General Introduction
General Introduction
Reflections On The Revolution In France And On The Proceedings In Certain
Societies In London Relative To That Event
In A Letter Intended To Have Been Sent To A Gentleman In Paris [1790]
Edmund Burke was born in Dublin in January, 1729, the son of an attorney.
His father was Protestant, his mother Catholic; and though the son followed
his father`s religion, he was always tolerant of the other faith. He was
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he took his B.A. in 1748, coming to
London two years later to study law. But his tastes were more literary than
legal, and on giving up law, against his father`s wish, before he was called
to the bar, he was forced to resort to his pen for a livelihood.
The first of his productions to gain notice was his "Vindication of
Natural Society, by a late noble writer," an ironical imitation of the style
and arguments of Bolingbroke, carried out with great skill. This pamphlet
already showed Burke as a defender of the established order of things. In the
same year, 1756, appeared his famous "Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of
our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful."
For five years, from 1759 to 1764, Burke`s time was largely occupied by
his duties as secretary to William Gerard Hamilton, practically his only
publications being in the "Annual Register," with which he was connected for
many years; yet in this period he found time to form intimacies with the
famous group containing, among others, Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr.
Johnson. During the short administration of Lord Rockingham, Burke acted as
that nobleman`s private secretary, and in January, 1766, he became a member of
the House of Commons. Almost at once he came into prominence as a speaker,
displaying in the debates on American affairs, which then occupied the House,
much independence and a disposition toward a wise expediency rather than a
harsh insistence on theoretical sovereignty in dealing with the colonists.
In 1768 Burke bought an estate in Buckinghamshire, for which he was never
able to pay in full; and during most of his life he was in financial
difficulties. During the Grafton ministry his chief publication was his
"Thoughts on the Present Discontents," in which he opposed the reviving
influence of the court, and championed the interests of the people. American
affairs continued to engage the attention of Parliament, and throughout the
struggle with the colonies Burke`s voice was constantly raised on behalf of a
policy of conciliation. With the aid of his disciple, C. J. Fox, he forced the
retirement of Lord North, and when the Whigs came into power in 1782 he was
made paymaster of the forces. Aristocratic jealousy, and the difficulties of
his own temperament, kept him out of a cabinet position then and later.
The next great issue on which Burke employed his oratorical talents was
the impeachment of Warren Hastings. Beginning in 1787, it dragged on for seven
years, Burke closing his colossal labors with a nine days` speech. Though
Hastings was acquitted, Burke`s fervid indignation in supporting the
impeachment, and the impeachment itself, were indications of the growth of the
sense of responsibility for the humane treatment of subject peoples.
Meantime, the sympathy expressed in England for the French Revolution in
its earlier stages roused Burke to express his opposition in his famous
"Reflections." In the debates which followed, Burke became separated from his
friends Sheridan and Fox, and finally from his party, and he closed his
political career in practical isolation.
On his retirement from Parliament in 1794, the King granted him a pension
which Pitt found means to increase, but even this well-earned reward he was
not allowed to enjoy without the grudging assaults of enemies. His last days
were spent in vigorous support of the war against France; and he died July 8,
1797.
Burke never attained a political office in any degree proportioned to his
ability and services, but he succeeded, nevertheless, in affecting profoundly
the opinion of his time. Latterly the House of Commons tired of his fervid and
imaginative eloquence, unwilling perhaps to make the effort necessary to
follow his keen intellectual processes, but he found through his writings a
larger audience. "Bacon alone excepted," says Buckle, Burke was "the greatest
political thinker who has ever devoted himself to the practise of English
politics."
Preface
I have endeavoured to make this edition something more full and
satisfactory than the first. I have sought with the utmost care, and read with
equal attention, everything which has appeared in public against my opinions;
I have taken advantage of the candid liberty of my friends; and if by these
means I have been better enabled to discover the imperfections of the work,
the indulgence it has received, imperfect as it was, furnished me with a new
motive to spare no reasonable pains for its improvement. Though I have not
found sufficient reason, or what appeared to me sufficient, for making any
material change in my theory, I have found it necessary in many places to
explain, illustrate, and enforce it. I have prefixed an introductory discourse
concerning Taste: it is a matter curious in itself; and it leads naturally
enough to the principal inquiry. This, with the other explanations, has made
the work considerably larger; and by increasing its bulk, has, I am afraid,
added to its faults; so that, notwithstanding all my attention, it may stand
in need of a yet greater share of indulgence than it required at its first
appearance.
They who are accustomed to studies of this nature will expect, and they
will allow too for many faults. They know that many of the objects of our
inquiry are in themselves obscure and intricate; and that many others have
been rendered so by affected refinements or false learning; they know that
there are many impediments in the subject, in the prejudices of others, and
even in our own, that render it a matter of no small difficulty to show in a
clear light the genuine face of nature. They know that, whilst the mind is
intent on the general scheme of things, some particular parts must be
neglected; that we must often submit the style to the matter, and frequently
give up the praise of elegance, satisfied with being clear.
The characters of nature are legible, it is true; but they are not plain
enough to enable those who run, to read them. We must make use of a cautious,
I had almost said a timorous, method of proceeding. We must not attempt to
fly, when we can scarcely pretend to creep. In considering any complex matter,
we ought to examine every distinct ingredient in the composition, one by one;
and reduce everything to the utmost simplicity; since the condition of our
nature binds us to a strict law and very narrow limits. We ought afterwards to
re-examine the principles by the effect of the composition, as well as the
composition by that of the principles. We ought to compare our subject with
things of a similar nature, and even with things of a contrary nature; for
discoveries may be, and often are, made by the contrast, which would escape us
on the single view. The greater number of the comparisons we make, the more
general and the more certain our knowledge is like to prove, as built upon a
more extensive and perfect induction.
If an inquiry thus carefully conducted should fail at last of discovering
the truth, it may answer an end perhaps as useful, in discovering to us the
weakness of our own understanding. If it does not make us knowing, it may make
us modest. If it does not preserve us from error, it may nt least from the
spirit of error; and may make us cautious of pronouncing with positiveness or
with haste, when so much labour may end in so much uncertainty.
I could wish that, in examining this theory, the same method were pursued
which I endeavoured to observe in forming it. The objections, in my opinion,
ought to be proposed, either to the several principles as they are distinctly
considered, or to the justness of the conclusion which is drawn from them. But
it is common to pass over both the premises and conclusion in silence, and to
produce, as an objection, some poetical passage which does not seem easily
accounted for upon the principles I endeavour to establish. This manner of
proceeding I should think very improper. The task would be infinite, if we
could establish no principle until we had previously unravelled the complex
texture of every image or description to be found in poets and orators. And
though we should never be able to reconcile the effect of such images to our
principles, this can never overturn the theory itself, whilst it is founded on
certain and indisputable facts. A theory founded on experiment, and not
assumed, is always good for so much as it explains. Our inability to push it
indefinitely is no argument at all against it. This inability may be owing to
our ignorance of some necessary mediums; to a want of proper application; to
many other causes besides a defect in the principles we employ. In reality,
the subject requires a much closer attention than we dare claim from our
manner of treating it.
If it should not appear on the face of the work, I must caution the
reader against imagining that I intended a full dissertation on the Sublime
and Beautiful. My inquiry went no farther than to the origin of these ideas.
If the qualities which I have ranged under the head of the Sublime be all
found consistent with each other, and all different from those which I place
under the head of Beauty; and if those which compose the class of the
Beautiful have the same consistency with themselves, and the same opposition
to those which are classed under the denomination of Sublime, I am in little
pain whether anybody chooses to follow the name I give them or not, provided
he allows that what I dispose under different heads are in reality different
things in nature. The use I make of the words may be blamed, as too confined
or too extended; my meaning cannot well be misunderstood.
To conclude: whatever progress may be made towards the discovery of truth
in this matter, I do not repent the pains I have taken in it. The use of such
inquiries may be very considerable. Whatever turns the soul inward on itself,
tends to concentre its forces, and to fit it for greater and stronger flights
of science. By looking into physical causes our minds are opened and enlarged;
and in this pursuit, whether we take or whether we lose our game, the chase is
certainly of service. Cicero, true as he was to the academic philosophy, and
consequently led to reject the certainty of physical, as of every other kind
of knowledge, yet freely confesses its great importance to the human
understanding; "Est animorum ingeniorumque nostrorum naturale quoddam quasi
pabulum consideratio contemplatioque naturae." If we can direct the lights we
derive from such exalted speculations, upon the humbler field of the
imagination, whilst we investigate the springs, and trace the courses of our
passions, we may not only communicate to the taste a sort of philosophical
solidity, but we may reflect back on the severer sciences some of the graces
and elegancies of taste, without which the greatest proficiency in those
sciences will always have the appearance of something illiberal.
Introductory Note
The characteristic passion of Burke`s life was his love of order. In
spite of the varying relations held by him toward the different parties in
England during his political career, one may easily find the key to his
consistency in this central principle. When the King`s party sought to
increase the royal prerogative, he resisted; when the old Whigs sought to make
the government of the country a means to the enrichment of their class, he
resisted; and when the sympathizers with the Revolution sought, as Burke
thought, to abolish government, he resisted. Liberty he claimed that he loved,
but "a liberty connected with order"; and in each of the political movements
just mentioned he discerned an attack on either liberty or order. He had a
profound veneration for the accumulated wisdom of centuries of experience, and
held that the bounds of liberty should be enlarged with great caution and very
gradually. That a political system had lasted a long time was to him an
argument that it must to a large extent be fit for its purpose, and that
therefore it should not be rashly changed.
With such views, Burke was bound to oppose the French Revolution. The
sweeping away of the traditions of ages, the erection of new forms of
government built on abstract theories, were abhorrent to him; and he threw
himself with vehemence into opposition. Much that was hopeful in the
Revolution he failed to see; and he could not in his passion discriminate
carefully among men and motives. But his treatment of the situation in these
"Reflections," written before the Terror had begun to alienate sympathy, shows
great insight and prophetic wisdom. This book led the reaction in England and
made its author a European figure. In this country to-day, with our
traditional sympathy with the great upheaval, it is in the highest degree
valuable to see these momentous events through the eyes of a great
contemporary conservative.
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