The Portable Edmund Burke (Portable Library)

by Edmund Burke

  The Desire of Lucre is become almost the general Spring of Action, and it has never produced any but mean ones; besides the Taste for irrational Pleasures has made the Souls of many so callous, as not to be sensible of any thing delicate. These two Passions naturally destroy the Love of Glory, which is the only Soil proper for producing generous Patrons as well as good Writers. If any one is known to expend something on the encouragement of Genius, the People stare, shake their Heads, and wish it may hold out with him; but no one wonders or blames him who expends his whole Time and Fortune on Trifles, empty if not vicious; or if he appears by the whole Tenor of his Life to be actuated by the desire of Gain, (a Passion much more unworthy a Gentleman) he passes for a sober and wise Man. Indeed the young Gentlemen of this Age, partly from Nature, partly from Education, have got a low kind of Prudence, and are taught to think every Thing that does not gratify the Senses, unsubstantial and trifling, and fit only for romantick Heads. And as for Praise, as they do nothing to deserve it, they are indifferent about it. Don’t wonder then (says Petronius talking of Painting) if these Arts have failed, when in the Eyes of Gods and Men, a Mass of Gold is more beautiful than all the Works of those foolish Greeklings, PHIDIAS, APELLES, &c. This would be a melancholy Prospect, did not the many Societies we see formed for the Support of useful Trades and Charities, make us hope better. Things. Nothing comes to its height at first, and the Spirit of encouraging Trade, may at length rise to Science. What has been done hitherto has been by Bodies of Men, few have had the courage singly to venture any Thing, tho’ private Men have always been the Support of Works of Politeness.

  No one can with any Colour of Reason pretend they love their Country, and affect to despise these Things; as they often contribute to, and are always the sign of its Prosperity, for as Roscommon says,

  By secret influence of indulgent Skies,

  Empire and Poesy together rise,

  True Poets are the Guardians of a State,

  And when they fail, portend approaching Fate;

  For that which Rome to Conquest did inspire,

  Was not the Vestal, but the Muses Fire;

  Heav’n joins the Blessings, no declining Age,

  E’er felt the Raptures of Poetick Rage.

  Poetry should be esteemed, if not for its own Sake, on account of the good Company it appears in; as Swallows are held sacred, not because they Bring, but because they accompany the Summer.

  NO. 7

  Take Physic, Pomp!

  Expose thyself to feel, what Wretches feel;

  That thou mayst shake the Superflux to them,

  And shew the Heavens more just.

  Shakespear.

  The Riches of a Nation are not to be estimated by the splendid Appearance or luxurious Lives of its Gentry; it is the uniform Plenty diffused through a People, of which the meanest as well as greatest partake, that makes them happy, and the Nation powerful. When this is wanting, the Splendour of the Great is rather a Reproach than Honour to them: As Mr Addison justly censures an Italian Prince, whose Subjects liv’d in the greatest Poverty, and were exposed to continual Dangers for want of a Bridge over a rapid River, whilst he lived in the utmost Magnificence. It is the Care of every wise Government to secure the lives and Properties of those who live under it: Why should it be less worth Consideration, to make those Lives comfortable, and these Properties worth preserving? Whoever travels through this Kingdom will see such Poverty, as few Nations in Europe can equal. In this City Things have the best Face; but still, as you leave the Town, the Scene grows worse, and presents you with the utmost Penury in the Midst of a rich Soil. Nothing perhaps shews it more clearly, than that though the People have but one small tax of Two Shillings a Year, yet when the Collector comes, for Default of Payment, he is obliged to carry off such of their poor Utensils, as their being forced to use denotes the utmost Misery; those he keeps, until by begging, or other Shifts more hard, they can redeem them. Indeed Money is a Stranger to them; and were they as near the Golden Age in some other Respects, as they are in this, they would be the happiest People in the World. As for their Food, it is notorious they seldom taste Bread or Meat; their Diet, in Summer, is Potatoes and sour Milk; in Winter, when something is required comfortable, they are still worse, living on the same Root, made palatable only by a little Salt, and accompanied with Water: Their Cloaths so ragged, that they rather publish than conceal the Wretchedness it was meant to hide; nay, it is no uncommon Sight to see half a dozen Children run quite naked out of a Cabin, scarcely distinguishable from a Dunghill, to the great Disgrace of our Country with Foreigners, who would doubtless report them Savages, imputing that to choice which only proceeds from their irremediable Poverty. Let any one take a Survey of their Cabins, and then say, whether such a Residence be worthy any thing that challenges the Title of a human Creature. You enter, or rather creep in, at a Door of Hurdles plaistered with Dirt, of which the Inhabitant is generally the Fabricator; within-side you see (if the Smoke will permit you) the Men, Women, Children, Dogs, and Swine lying promiscuously; for their Opulence is such that they cannot have a separate House for their Cattle, as it would take too much from the Garden, whose produce is their only Support. Their Furniture is much fitter to be lamented than described, such as a Pot, a Stool, a few wooden Vessels, and a broken bottle: In this manner all the Peasantry, to a Man, live: and I Appeal to any one, who knows the Country, for the Justness of the Picture. Who, after having seen this, comes to Town and beholds their sumptuous and expensive Equipages, their Treats and Diversions, can contain the highest Indignation? Such Follies considered in themselves, are but ridiculous; but when we see the bitter consequences of them, ’twere Inhumanity to laugh. BOCCALINI, to create a Distaste for false Glory, introduces SFORZA Duke of Milan, making his triumphal entry into Parnassus, attended, by Order of Apollo, by all whom his Victories had made miserable. Never (says the Writer) was seen so sad a Spectacle, the Eyes of the most obdurate were melted into Tears, to see such an infinite Number of Creatures; some starved in loathsome Hospitals, some mangled and hewed to pieces by horrid Wounds, some trampled to Death under Horses Feet; and others begging their Bread on the Road; their Prince’s Service, in which they had lost their Blood, and exposed their Lives to a thousand Dangers, not having furnished them with enough to carry them to their Homes, which, to their Misfortune, they had so foolishly abandoned. As he passed, a thousand curses were thrown on him, on the Art of War, and that false Love of Glory, which renders Mankind miserable. I fancy, many of our fine Gentlemen’s Pageantry would be greatly tarnished, were their gilt coaches to be preceded and followed by the miserable Wretches, whose Labour supports them. That some should live in a more sumptuous manner than others, is very allowable; but sure it is hard, that those who cultivate the Soil, should have so small a Part of its Fruits; and that among Creatures of the same Kind there should be such a Disproportion in their manner of living; it is a kind of Blasphemy on Providence, and seems to shew, as our Motto finely expresses it, “the Heavens unjust.” Our modern Systems hold, that the Riches and Power of Kings are by no means their Property, but a Depositum in their Hands, for the Use of the People: And if we consider the natural Equality of Mankind, we shall believe the same of the Estates of Gentlemen, bestowed on them at the first distribution of Properties, for promoting the Public Good: And when, by the use they make of their Fortunes, they thwart that End, they are liable to the same or a greater Reproach than a Prince who abuses his Power. Is it not natural for a Man, who rides in his Coach on a bitter Day, or lies on his Velvet Couch, secured from all the Inclemencies of the Weather, to reflect with Pity on those who suffer Calamities equal to his Enjoyments?

  But there are some People who shut their Hearts to Charity, and to excuse their want of Compassion, throw all the Fault as well as Misfortune on the unhappy Poor. Their Sloth, say those, is the cause of their Misery. ‘Tis pleasant to observe, that this Objection frequently comes from those who in all their lives have not been as serviceable to their Country,
as the idlest of these poor Creatures in one Day; but the Falsity of the Thing shews evidently the Ignorance of the Assertors. We shall examine into their Means, and thence judge, how much the greatest Industry does or can better them. There are three kinds of people in the country besides the Gentlemen of Fortune; we shall begin with the lowest and most numerous, the Labourers; they have an Acre of Land at a very high Rent, to pay which they must work for their Master a great part of the Year, the rest is employed in cultivating their own Garden for an immediate Support; then judge what Time they have to procure Cloaths and other Necessaries for themselves and their Families: Thus they must labour, and that without Intermission, for the lowest Livelyhood: yet there are few whom hard Seasons or other Calamities have not sometime in their Lives sent to beg. The poorer kind of Farmers called in some parts of the Kingdom Cottiers, live nigh as miserably as the former, though they hold larger Quantities of Land, but at such a Rent as both hurts them and the Landlord. Gentlemen perceiving that in England Farmers pay heavy Rent, and yet live comfortably, without considering the Disproportion of Markets and every Thing else, raise their Rent high, and extort it heavily. Thus none will hold from them but those desperate Creatures who ruin the Land (in vain) to make their Rent; they fly; the Landlord seizes, and to avoid the like Mischance, takes all into his own hands; which being unable to manage, he turns to grazing; thus one part of the Nation is starved, and the other deserted. The rich Farmers or Graziers, the third Sort, hold vast Quantities of Land, and as they live like estated Men, equally contribute to the Poverty of the rest.

  The Evil is easier seen than remedied; but perhaps the Example of a Gentleman of Fortune, whom I knew, may be useful. He came early to the Possession of an Estate valued 20001. per Ann. but set to a vast Number of Tenants at a very high rent: As usual in such cases, nothing could be in a worse Condition than his Estate: his Rents ill paid, the Land out of Heart, and not a Bush, not a tolerable Enclosure, much less Habitation, to be seen. He found his Leases out, but he did not study, with the Greediness of a young Heir, how to raise the price nor Value of his Lands, nor turn out all his poor Tenants to make room for two or three rich. He retained all those to whose honest Industry he had been Witness, and lowered his Rents very considerably: he bound them to plant certain Quantities of Trees, and make other Improvements. Thus in a few years Things had another Face, his Rent was well paid, his Tenants grew rich, and his Estate increased daily in Beauty and Value: There was a Village on it, which was equally ruinous with the rest; when he designed the Improvement of this, he did not take the ordinary Method of establishing Horse-races and Assemblies, which do but encourage Drinking and Idleness but at a much smaller Expence he introduced a Manufacture which, though not very considerable, employed the whole Town, and in Time made it opulent. Notwithstanding all this, no Person lives more hospitably in the Country, in the Town more genteel. I have often heard him discourse on this Subject. “I have lowered my Rents (says he) but how much am I the poorer? What Gratification do I want? ‘Tis true, I have not every Month some new invented Carriage coming from England to make the Town amazed at my Folly: I keep no French Cook, I wear my own Country manufactures; by which means I save, I believe, more than I lose by the lowness of my Rent: At the same time I am satisfied I am making Numbers happy, without Expence to myself, doing my Country Service without Ostentation, and leaving my son a better Estate without oppressing any one.”

  Had many of our Gentlemen the same just Way of thinking, we should no doubt see this Nation in a short time in the most flourishing Condition, notwithstanding all the Disadvantages we labour under. But while they proceed on a quite Opposite Plan, it can never emerge, though we were possess’d of many more Advantages than we are able to boast of.

  NO. II

  Our Papers are sometimes employed on Subjects which we think useful, tho’ no present Occasion should suggest them, at other Times, the posture of Affairs affords us Matter of Speculation, and now the Season presents one, which it were equally blameable in us and all good Men to neglect.

  Pythagoras recommends to his Disciples, to pass the Close of each Day in Retirement, to revolve their past Actions, to contemplate useful Matters, and lay in proper Resolutions for their future Conduct; nor is it less wisely ordained in the Christian Polity, that certain Times recurring annually, should be devoted to Religion, lest the Mind too much softened by Pleasures, or overgrown with the Rust of worldly Cares, should forget its high Destination. I have read of Persons whom some Misfortune threw among barbarous People, where being habituated to their Company, they grew in Love with their Manners and never remembered or never desired to see their native Country. A small Time properly applied to Reflection, would prevent such a scandalous Degeneracy; and there is none who cannot spare it, cannot spare the smallest Part of their Time to provide for the longest of their Existence, where their Happiness, or Misery is not Precarious, or by Fits, but to endure without Interruption thro’ all Eternity.

  There are a Set of Men not infrequent in this City who tho’ they allow of Morality, cry down reveal’d Religion, yet in their Practice, they make them equal, neglecting both; how weak an Obligation, Morality consider’d in itself would be, may be seen, by supposing Laws imposed on a Nation, without Rewards for those who kept, or Punishments for those who broke them. They are not true friends to Virtue, who would deprive it of any thing which serves to enforce or strengthen it; they are like the Wolves in the Fable, who enter’d into a Treaty with the Sheep, wherein it was stipulated, that they should dismiss the Dogs; and then they tore the flock to Pieces. These Men have so far interwoven their darling Appetites with every Thought, that their most refined Judgments on Things become but Gratifications to a favourite Passion, and all the Actions resulting from thence, tho’ agreeable to their System of Morality, are not less opposite to Religion than right Reason, for herein they coincide, as those two only produce Actions which are called good and wise. Formerly an affectation of Singularity caused such Opinions; but now, to have no Taint of them, is almost as Singular, they have since got a Reason more substantial, they form a Set of Rules at one to indulge their Passions and lull their Conscience. Thus they sometimes deceive Men of Sense thro’ the hardiness of their Notions, and the Vulgar very often, from an Ability to talk more against Religion, than they can for it, and flush’d with this Appearance of Success, attribute that to a Defect in the Cause, which was merely in the Defender.

  The two greatest Enemies of Religion are the above-mentioned Infidelity and Blind Zeal, the former attacks it like an open Enemy, and the latter like an indiscreet Friend, does it more Harm than Good; the first gives rise to the Free-Thinkers, the latter to our Sectaries, a truly religious Life has the same Efficacy to the prevention of both. This would soon convince Unbelievers of the superior Power of Religion towards a Moral Life, and shew at the same time how much it exceeds all Systems of Philosophy, in supporting us under Misfortunes as that teaches us only to bear; but this to rejoice in them, by fastening our Thoughts on something indeed past our Comprehension, but not our Hopes: And even this Appearance of Religion would hinder many from throwing themselves into the Arms of the first false Teacher that offers, who with the Advantage of a Shew of Zeal, promises that Comfort they could not find before.

  The Practice of Virtue and Religion is indispensible at all Times; but never more than at this, when we commemorate the Time our Creator became our Redeemer, and for our sake manifested in the highest manner the highest Attributes of his Divinity, his Love and his Power, the one in dying for us, and the other in conquering Death, by giving that glorious Proof of our Immortality, and being himself the first Fruits of the Resurrecdon.

  A Notebook of Edmund Burke

  Only in the middle of the twentieth century was a notebook of early Burke writings found in Burke’s papers belonging to Earl Fitzwilliam and deposited in the public library of Sheffield, England. The notebook sheds important light on Burke’s thinking in his first years in England, since the essays in it are
assumed to have been written between 1750 and 1756. Included here are two short pieces in which Burke describes his ideal of a “gentleman” and of a “wise man.” In a third sketch from the notebook he offers his “idea of a woman,” which is assumed to be a sketch of Mrs. Burke. Finally, there are some interesting early observations on religion.

  THE CHARACTER OF A FINE GENTLEMAN

  SOME OF THE LEARNED have quarrelled with the vulgar notions of a fine Gentleman; and because they thought this a Character highly esteemable, were displeased to see it so often applied to a sort of men they could by no means approve. They therefore wholly excluded from this denomination all whose morals were dissolute, though their manners were none so agreeable; and they concluded that the man of compleat vertue was alone the fine Gentleman.

  We must trust the world to give names to Characters; to change and transpose the distinctions Custom has settled, would not be an improvement of knowledge, but an abuse of words. Let us see then, what sort of men they are, who are generally termed fine Gentlemen, and endeavour to settle with ourselves a notion of this Character. But a Character is too complete a thing to be drawn into a Definition. We may acquire a much better Idea of it from viewing it in as great a variety of Lights as the Subject will bear.

  This Character is not denominated from excellence in any sort of Business or employment; it belongs solely to conversation, and the habitudes of pleasant Society; its Basis is politeness, whose essence is Ease: and hence it is that there is no Character more rarely found; for easy behaviour, easy conversation, and easy writing are the hardest things in the world. At your first Entrance into any company, the fine Gentleman is not the person who strikes you most, and you may possibly converse with him several times before you discover what his excellence is, and where it lies.