If we do not take to our aid the foregone studies of men reputed intelligent and learned, we shall be always beginners.-Appeal from New to Old Whigs.

We seem to be approaching to a great crisis in our affairs, which calls for the whole wisdom of the wisest among us, without being able to assure ourselves that any wisdom can preserve us from many and great inconveniencies.-Speech on Arr. at Bristol.

It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice this great public contest. I do not know

THE WISDOM OF EDMUND BURKE 231

the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.-Speech on Concil. with America.

There are critical moments in the fortune of all states, when they who are too weak to contribute to your prosperity, may be strong enough to complete your ruin. Spoliatis arma supersunt. — Speech on Concil. with America.

Bodies tied together by so unnatural a bond of union as mutual hatred, are only connected to their ruin.--Letter to Sheriffs of Bristol.

By doing this, without the least impairing of our strength, we add to the credit of our moderation, which, in itself, is always strength more or less.—Letter to Sheriffs of Bristol.

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.-Reflect. on Rev. in France.

Let me add, that the great inlet by which a colour for oppression has entered into the world, is by one man's pretending to determine concerning the happiness of another, and by claiming a right to use what means he thinks proper in order to bring him to a sense of it. It is the ordinary and trite sophism of oppression.—Tracts on Popery Laws.

The conduct of a losing party never appears right; at least it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar judgments-success.-Letter to Memb. of Nat. Assembly.

But the most favourable laws can do very little towards the happiness of a people, when the disposition of the ruling power is adverse to them. Men do not live upon blotted paper. The favourable or the hostile mind of the ruling power is of far more importance to mankind, for good or evil, than the black letter of any statute.-Letter on Affairs of Treland.

The people of England were then, as they are now, called upon to make government strong. They thought it a great deal better to make it wise and honest. - Letter to Sheriffs of Bristol.

It is of the utmost moment not to make mistakes in the use of strong measures; and firmness is then only a virtue when it accompanies the most perfect wisdom. truth, inconstancy is a sort of natural corrective of folly and ignorance.—Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

In

Every good political institution must have a preventive operation as well as a remedial. It ought to have a natural tendency to exclude bad men from government, and not to trust for the safety of the state to subsequent punishment alone.-Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

Religion, always a principle of energy. -Speech on Concil. with America.

For there is a sort of presumption against novelty, drawn out of a deep consideration of human nature and human affairs; and the maxim of jurisprudence is well laid down, Vetustas pro lege semper habetur. - First Letter on Reg. Peace.

I believe the instances are exceedingly rare of men immediately passing over a clear, marked line of virtue into declared vice and corruption. There are a sort of middle tints and shades between the two extremes; there is something uncertain on the confines of the two empires which they first pass through, and which renders the change easy and imperceptible. There are even a sort of splendid impositions so well contrived that, at the very time the path of rectitude is quitted for ever, men seem to be advancing into some higher and nobler road of public conduct. Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

But among vices, there is none which the