The Portable Edmund Burke (Portable Library) (10 page)

It is hardness in his Character I take to be the cause why he has no Religion. His passions are not easily moved; and he is incredulous in his nature. He is, besides, proud; apt to reject anything which has a mean aspect in any sense, or is much venerated by mean people. He estimates things merely as they are estimated in the world; and he is always ready to suspect everything of policy and contrivance. In that light he looks upon Religion; which he esteems and despises at once. But he never seeks an empty and foolish reputation from running it down.You cannot discover his Sentiments any otherwise than by his indifference in it and the discoveries which being too cautious of a discovery sometimes makes.

His conversation is not without an agreeable pleasantry; but his mirth is usually dry and sarcastical. His way of loving mankind is but an intercourse of business; not of affection. For he neither loves nor hates anybody. When he marries he makes a good choice because he chooses without passion. Family and fortune he secures; and does not neglect those qualities that may make his Wife an useful and agreeable companion. He makes to her a good husband; but she has not a great deal of his attention; and when she dies, he has a loss of which he is not insensible; but not to that degree which may hinder him of reflecting that his eldest Son may have a better match by the removal of her jointure.

His Children are well educated, and well kept; and in general well instructed to make a figure in the World. Far from being a burden to him, they may be considered as instruments of his Ambition. By advancing them he makes them useful to him; advancing thereby his own importance and grandeur in publick life.

He is steady to his party, and useful to it; and seeks preferment without being servile. In an Office of trust he does not betray it by dishonesty, nor degrade it by inability; but it acquires no dignity under him; and passes to his successor just as he found it. He neglects no usual profit, and scruples no usual action of whatever nature; but to innovate is dangerous and uncertain; so that, wronging no man in trifles, nor exasperating any by petty injuries; standing no man’s rival in inferior accomplishments or pleasures, and serving many for his own ends; ruining those who endeavour to disserve him; being a man to be depended on in business, and adhering to justice whilst it is consistent with sound policy, (and it is not often otherwise), he passes thro affairs with reputation; not being capricious and splenetick; advancing his Children by all means; and not exasperating one set of his neighbours by being of party with the other, he passes for no ill natured Man. Having lived successfully respected, feared, courted, and something envied; hated but by few, and that secretly; with a Character defended by all the common maxims of Life to which he has always carefully adjusted his conduct, he dies, is emboweld, embalmed, and buried, with a Monument expressing his family, his places, and his Alliances.

I intend to give my Idea of a woman. If it at all answers any Original I shall be pleased; for if such a person really exists as I would describe, she must be far Superior to any Description, and such as I must love too well to be able to paint as I ought.

She is handsome; but it is a Beauty not arising from features, from Complexion and Shape. She has all these in an high degree; but whoever looks at her never perceives them, nor makes them the Topic of his Praise. ‘Tis all the sweetness of Temper, Benevolence, Innocence and Sensibility which a face can express, that forms her beauty.

She has a face that just raises your attention at first sight; it grows on you every moment, and you wonder it did no more than raise your Attention at first.

Her Eyes have a mild light, but they awe you when she pleases; they command like a good man out of office, not by Authority but virtue.

Her features are not perfectly regular; this Sort of Exactness is more to be praised than loved; it is never animated.

Her stature is not tall. She is not to be the admiration of everybody, but the happiness of one.

She has all the Delicacy that does not Exclude firmness.

She has all the Softness that does not imply weakness.

There is often more of the Coquet shewn in an Effected plainness, than a Tawdry finery; she is always clean without preciseness or affectation.

Her Gravity is a gentle thoughtfulness that Softens the features without discomposing them. She is usually grave.

Her Smiles are ... inexpressible—

Her Voice is a low, Soft musick; not formed to rule in publick Assemblies, but to charm those who can distinguish a Company from a Croud. It has this advantage, you must come Close to her to hear it.

To describe her body, describes her mind; one is the Transcript of the other.

Her understanding is not shewn in the Variety of matters it exerts itself on, but the goodness of the Choice she makes.

She does not Shew it so much in doing or Saying striking things, as in avoiding such as she ought not to say or do.

She discovers the right from the wrong in things not by reasoning, but Sagacity.

Most women, and many good ones, have a Closeness and something Selfish in their Disposition:—She has a true generosity of Temper. The most extravagant cannot be more willing to give; the most Covetous not more cautious to whom they give.

No person of so few years can know the world better: no person was ever less corrupted by that knowledge. Her politeness seems to flow rather from a natural disposition to oblige, than from any rules on that subject; and therefore never fails to Strike those who understand good breeding, and those who do not.

She does not run with a Girlish eagerness into new friendships; which as they have no foundation in reason, only tend to multiply and imbitter disputes. ‘Tis long before she chuses; but then it is fixid forever; and the first hours of romantick friendships are not more warm than hers after years.

As she never disgraces her good nature by severe reflections on any body, so she never degrades her Judgement by immoderate or ill-placed praises; for everything violent is contrary to the Gentleness of her disposition, and the evenness of her virtue. She has a steady and firm mind, which takes no more from the female Character than the Solidity of marble does from its Polish and Lustre.

She has such virtues as make us value the truely great of our own Sex. She has all the winning Graces that make us love even the faults we see in the weak and Beautiful of hers.

Who can see and know such a Creature and not love to Distraction?

Who can know her, and himself, and entertain much hope?

Nothing can operate but from its own principles. The Principle of Religion is that God attends to our actions to reward and punish them. This Principle has an independent Operation, and Influences our Actions much to the Benefit of civil Society. But then the Influence on civil Society is only an oblique Influence. The Direct Influence is the civil Law itself, its own Principles and its own Sanctions. If you attempt to make the end of Religion to be its Utility to human Society, to make it only a sort of supplement to the Law, and insist principally upon this Topic, as is very common to do, you then change its principle of Operation, which consists on Views beyond this Life, to a consideration of another kind, and of an inferiour kind; and thus, by forcing it against its Nature to become a Political Engine,You make it an Engine of no efficacy at all. It can never operate for the Benefit of human Society but when we think it is directed quite another way: because it then only operates from its own principle. Will any Man believe that eternal rewards and Punishments are the Sanctions of Momentary things of no Concern? Will he not think it a strange Machine that employs so vast, so immense a force, such a grand Apparatus to move so insignificant a weight? Is it not much more natural, much more in the order of things, to suppose that if a reasonable Creature is to determine of his own Destiny so as to determine him for Bliss or for Misery everlastingly, that the Trial is made subservient to a great End of the last Importance, and that Trial the
Means
of Attaining that End, rather than that all Eternity should be subservient to the purposes of a moment? When we are told this, we cool immediately. The Springs are seen; we value ourselves on the Discovery; we cast Religion to the Vulgar and lose all restraint. For as we confine the Ends of Religion to this world, we naturally annihilate its Operation, which must wholly depend upon the Consideration of another. Men never gain anything, by forcing Nature to conform to their Politicks. I know the Clergy, shamed and frightend at the Imputation of Enthusiasm, endeavour to cover Religion under the Shield of Reason, which will have some force with their Adversaries. But God has been pleased to give Mankind an Enthusiasm to supply the want of Reason; and truely, Enthusiasm comes nearer the great and comprehensive Reason in its effects, though not in the Manner of Operation, than the Common Reason does; which works on confined, narrow, common, and therefore plausible, Topics. The former is the lot of very few. The latter is common; and fit enough for common affairs—to buy and sell, to teach Grammar and the like; but is utterly unfit to meddle with Politics, Divinity and Philosophy. But Enthusiasm is a sort of Instinct, in those who possess it, that operates, like all Instincts, better than a mean Species of Reason.

It is true indeed that enthusiasm often misleads us. So does reason too. Such is the Condition of our Nature; and we can’t help it. But I believe that we act most when we act with all the Powers of our Soul; when we use our Enthusiasm to elevate and expand our Reasoning; and our Reasoning to check the Roving of our Enthusiasm.

As God has made all his Creatures active, He has made Man principally so. Many of our actions that compose our principal Duties are difficult, attended with trouble, and often with Danger. But action is influenced by Opinion—and our Notion of things; and nothing but strong and confirmed Opinion can lead to resolute Action. Therefore doubt and Scepticism were no more made for Man than Pride and Positiveness; for no Action, or but feeble and imperfect essays towards action, can arise from dubious Notions and fluctuating Principles.

If there be a God such as we conceive, He must be our Maker.

If he is our Maker, there is a Relation between us.

If there be a Relation between us, some Duty must arise from that Relation, since [we] cannot conceive that a reasonable Creature can be placed in any Relation that does not give rise to some Duty.

This Relation betwixt God and Man, is that Man has received several Benefits but can return none. That he may suffer all Manner of Mischief, but can return none, or by himself avert none.

Therefore by no
act
can he perform this Duty; but he can by the Sentiments of his Mind.

Where we have received good, ‘tis natural to Praise.

Where we hope good, it is natural to pray.

Where we fear Evil, ‘tis natural to deprecate it.

 

 

We have a Relation to other Men.

We want many things compassable only by the help of other beings like ourselves.

They want things compassable within our Help.

We love these beings and have a Sympathy with them.

If we require help, ‘tis reasonable we should give help.

If we love, ‘tis natural to do good to those whom we love.

Hence one Branch of our Duties to our fellow Creatures is active—Hence Benevolence.

 

 

Morality does not necessarily include Religion, since it concerns only our Relation with Men.

But Religion necessarily includes Morality, because the Relation of God as a Creator is the same to other Men as to us.

If God has placed us in a Relation attended with Duties, it must be agreeable to him that we perform those Duties.

 

 

If God has provided fatally for all things, we may honour him but we can neither love him, fear him, nor hope in Him. For there is no object for those Passions.

This would reduce all worship to praise only, and Gratitude.

Gratitude is an inert Principal, because it concerns only things done.

Hope and fear are the Springs of everything in us, because they look to the future about which, only, Mankind can be sollicitous. To take away Providence would therefore be to take away Religion.

The Arguments against Providence are from our
Reasonings,
observing a certain order in the works of God. There is nothing at all in our natural feelings against it.

There is a great deal in our natural feelings for it.

All Dependant Beings that have a Sense of their Dependence naturally cry out to their Superiour for assistance.

No man can act uniformly as if a fatality governed everything.

Men do not naturally conceive that, when they are strongly actuated to call upon a Superior, that [sic] they cannot be heard; they do not conceive that they have Passions which have no Purpose.

They naturally measure their Duties to the Divinity by their own wants and their feelings, and not by abstract Speculations.

In the one they cannot be deceived, in the other they may.

One is taken from the Nature of God which we do not understand, the other from our own which we understand better.

Metaphysical or Physical Speculations neither are, or ought to be, the Grounds of our Duties; because we can arrive at no certainty in them. They have a weight when they concur with our own natural feelings; very little when against them.

The Ends of a transitory Animal may be answered without any knowledge of a God. They are so answered in Beasts.