Indeed, in the gross and complicated mass of human passions and concerns, the primitive rights of men undergo such a variety of refractions and reflections that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction.
Burke argues that the complexity of human society and passions makes it unrealistic to discuss primitive rights as if they remain simple and unadulterated.
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Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
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