The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori.
Edmund Burke: “The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that the creation or reform of a commonwealth is an experimental science, not one to be derived from abstract principles alone.
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This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.





