BURKE'S WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

VOLUME THE FIRST

EDMUND BURKE.

THE WORKS

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

EDMUND BURKE

IN TWELVE VOLUMES

VOLUME THE FIRST

London

JOHN C. NIMMO

14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.

MDCCCLXXXVII

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

• ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER, PREFIXED TO THE FIRST OCTAVO EDITION v

• ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND OCTAVO EDITION xvii

• A VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY: OR, A VIEW OF THE MISERIES AND EVILS ARISING TO MANKIND FROM EVERY SPECIES OF ARTIFICIAL SOCIETY 1
• • PREFACE
  • A LETTER TO LORD ****
• A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL; WITH AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING TASTE 67
• • PREFACE
  • CONTENTS
  • INTRODUCTION
  • PART I
  • PART II
  • PART III
  • PART IV
  • PART V
  • APPENDIX
• A SHORT ACCOUNT OF A LATE SHORT ADMINISTRATION 263
• OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE PUBLICATION, INTITULED, "THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION" 269
• THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 433

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE READER.[1]

The late Mr. Burke, from a principle of unaffected humility, which they who were the most intimately acquainted with his character best know to have been in his estimation one of the most important moral duties, never himself made any collection of the various publications with which, during a period of forty years, he adorned and enriched the literature of this country. When, however, the rapid and unexampled demand for his "Reflections on the Revolution in France" had unequivocally testified his celebrity as a writer, some of his friends so far prevailed upon him, that he permitted them to put forth a regular edition of his works. Accordingly, three volumes in quarto appeared under that title in 1792, printed for the late Mr. Dodsley. That edition, therefore, has been made the foundation of the present, for which a form has been chosen better adapted to public convenience. Such errors of the press as have been discovered in it are here rectified: in other

respects it is