CHAPTER IV.

EDMUND BURKE.

Edmund Burke was born in Dublin, on the 1st of January, 1730. Of his early history very little is known, except that he was of a delicate and consumptive habit, and, while at school, gave no peculiar promise of his future greatness. It is said, however, that, during his youthful years, he exhibited his extraordinary powers of memory, and the exuberance of his fancy.

In 1744, at the age of fourteen, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he remained six years, pursuing a regular course of severe study. When he left the University his mind was well stored with knowledge. As to his course of reading during his college life, we have the following account: "He had mastered most of the great writers of antiquity Demosthenes was his favorite orator, though he was led in after life, by the bent of his genius, to form himself on the model of Cicero, whom he more resembled in magnificence and copiousness of thought. He delighted in Plutarch. He read most of the great poets of antiquity; and was peculiarly fond of Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius, a large part of whose writings he committed to memory. In English he read the essays of Lord Bacon again and again with increasing admiration, and pronounced them the greatest works of that great man.' Shakespeare was his daily study. But his highest reverence was reserved for Milton, whose richness of language, boundless learning, and scriptural grandeur of conception,'

were the first and last themes of his applause. The philosophical tendency of his mind began now to display itself with great distinctness, and became, from this period, the master principle of his genius. 'Rerum cognoscere causas,' seems ever to have been his delight, and soon became the object of all his studies and reflections. He had an exquisite sensibility to the beauties of nature, of art, and of elegant composition, but he could never rest here. 'Whence this enjoyment?' On what principle does it depend? How might it be carried to a still higher point?" these are the questions which seem almost from boyhood to have occurred instinctively to his mind. His attempts at philosophical criticism commenced in college, and led to his producing one of the most beautiful works of this kind to be found in any language. In like manner, history to him, even at this early period, was not a mere chronicle of events, a picture of battles and sieges, or of life and manners; to make it history, it must bind events together by the causes which produced them. The science of politics and government was in his mind the science of man; not a system of arbitrary regulations, or a thing of policy and intrigue, but founded on a knowledge of those principles, feelings, and even prejudices, which unite a people together in one community-'ties,' as he beautifully expresses it,' which though light as air, are strong as links of iron.' Such were the habits of thought to which his mind was tending even from his college days, and they made him pre-eminently the great PHILOSOPHICAL ORATOR of our language.'

In 1750, Mr. Burke commenced the study of law; but he was never particularly interested in legal studies, and soon afterwards abandoned them for his favorite pursuits- those of literature and philosophy.

In 1756, appeared his first avowed work, entitled the Vindication of Natural Society. This work aims at the

overthrow of Lord Bolingbroke's philosophical principles. It exposes the unsoundness of the infidel's reasonings and the fallacy of his arguments. Applying to civil society the mode of reasoning against religion adopted by Bolingbroke, he undertook in the closest imitation of his Lordship's style to expose "the crimes and wretchedness which have prevailed under every form of government, and thus to show that society is itself an evil, and the savage state the only one favorable to virtue and happi

ness."

It is very gratifying to find so great a statesman as Burke, in the beginning of his political career, advocating the cause of Christianity. He was a firm believer in the sublime doctrines of the gospel; and knew perfectly well that a general promulgation and universal reception of these doctrines were the best means of producing peace, order, and happiness in civil society-of advancing the cause of education, and of elevating the character of a nation. He saw that, if the principles of Bolingbroke were carried out in civil society, no government could exist; but anarchy, bloodshed and death would be the direful consequences. Impressed with these important truths, he boldly came forward as the advocate of religion and morality; and his name will ever be held in grateful remembrance by all those who love the blessed doctrines of the Bible.

Before the close of 1756, Mr. Burke published his celebrated Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful. The composition of this work is a master-piece; it displays a wonderful depth of philosophical investigation,- immense excursions of genius,-transcendent powers of fancy-rich veins of thought, and surpassing elegance of diction.

Such a profound philosophical work, coming from the pen of so young a man, excited a lively interest among the friends of literature and at once raised its author to a

high position in the literary world. Wherever he went, Mr. Burke was greeted with applause as the author of the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful; and his acquaintance was sought by the most distinguished literary men of the age-such as Goldsmith, Lord Lyttleton, Murphy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hume, Johnson, and many others. In conversation, Burke excelled almost every other man in ease and freedom of expression, the display of boundless stores of knowledge, and the force and beauty of his language.

Dr. Johnson, the Colossus of English literature, always spoke of him in terms of the highest regard. "Burke," said he," is an extraordinary man. His stream of talk is perpetual; and he does not talk from any desire of distinction, but because his mind is full." "He is the only man," said he, at a later period, when Burke was at the zenith of his reputation, "whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame which he has in the world. Take him up where you please, he is ready to meet you." "No man of sense," he said, "could meet Burke by accident under a gateway to avoid a shower, without being convinced that he was the first man in England." A striking confirmation of this remark occurred some years after, when Mr. Burke was passing through Litchfield, the birth-place of Johnson. Wishing to see the Cathedral during the change of horses, he stepped into the building, and was met by one of the clergy of the place, who kindly offered to point out the principal objects of curiosity. "A conversation ensued; but, in a few moments, the clergyman's pride of local information was completely subdued by the copious and minute knowledge displayed by the stranger. Whatever topic the objects before them suggested, whether the theme was architecture or antiquities, some obscure passage in ecclesiastical history, or some question respecting the life of a saint, he touched it as with a sun-beam. His inform

ation appeared universal; his mind, clear intellect, without one particle of ignorance. A few minutes after their separation, the clergyman was met hurrying through the street. 'I have had,' said he, 'quite an adventure. I have been conversing for this half hour past with a man of the most extraordinay powers of mind and extent of information which it has ever been my fortune to meet with; and I am now going to the inn, to ascertain, if possible, who this stranger is.""

The laborious application which the composition of the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful required, considerably injured Mr. Burke's health. He was compelled to seek repose at Bath. Here, he was invited by Dr. Nugent, an eminent physician, to his house. The consequence of this visit was not only the recovery of Mr. Burke's health, but a strong attachment between him and the amiable and accomplished daughter of Dr. Nugent. A union for life was soon formed. They were married in 1757. This happy union, Mr. Burke always regarded as the chief blessing of his life. So sweet were the enjoyments of domestic life to him, that, as he often said, every care vanished the moment he entered beneath his own roof.

In the same year, 1757, Mr. Burke published, in two octavo volumes, An Account of the European Settlements in America a work of which he was the principal, though not the sole author. It was perhaps prepared in conjunction with his two brothers. The extensive knowledge of the early history of the British colonies which Mr. Burke acquired by his researches on this subject, was of great advantage to him, nine years after, when he first rose before the approaching storm of the American revolution, and shook the walls of the British senate-house with an eloquence that astonished even the greatest speakers of the age.

He had closely studied the character of the American