Bacon, in order to establish his republican, system, has so distorted all the evidence he has produced, concealed so many things of consequence, and thrown such false colors upon the whole argument, that I know no book so likely to mislead the reader in our antiquities, if yet it retains any authority.
Burke criticizes Bacon's interpretation of historical evidence regarding republicanism.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Who but the most desperate adventurers in philosophy and finance could at all have thought of destroying the settled revenue of the state, the sole security for the public credit, in the hope of rebuilding it with the materials of…
It was not made to entice the smell of a mole, nuzzling and burying himself in his mother earth, as yours is.
There are some follies which baffle argument, which go beyond ridicule, and which excite no feeling in us but disgust; and therefore I say no more upon it.
Rome, under her emperors, united the evils of both systems; and this unnatural combination was one great cause of her ruin.
Other voices in this conversation
