They conceive that He who gave our nature to be perfected by our virtue willed also the necessary means of its perfection: He willed, therefore, the state: He willed its connection with the source and original archetype of all perfection.
Edmund Burke: “They conceive that He who gave our nature to be perfected by our virtue willed also the necessary means of its…”
Editor's note · Context
From his critique of the French Revolution, Burke explains the philosophical and religious basis for the state's existence.
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Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…
Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?





