The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. I. | Page 5

his public life as a statesman, and the political
pieces which were written by him between the time of his first
becoming connected with the Marquis of Rockingham and his being
chosen member for Bristol. In the third are comprehended all his

speeches and pamphlets from his first arrival at Bristol, as a candidate,
in the year 1774, to his farewell address from the hustings of that city,
in the year 1780. What he himself published relative to the affairs of
India occupies the fourth volume. The remaining four comprise his
works since the French Revolution, with the exception of the Letter to
Lord Kenmare on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics, which was
probably inserted where it stands from its relation to the subject of the
Letter addressed by him, at a later period, to Sir Hercules Langrishe.
With the same exception, too, strict regard has been paid to
chronological order, which, in the last edition, was in some instances
broken, to insert pieces that wore not discovered till it was too late to
introduce them in their proper places.
In the Appendix to the Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts the
references were found to be confused, and, in many places, erroneous.
This probably had arisen from the circumstance that a larger and
differently constructed appendix seems to have been originally
designed by Mr. Burke, which, however, he afterwards abridged and
altered, while the speech and the notes upon it remained as they were.
The text and the documents that support it have throughout been
accommodated to each other.
The orthography has been in many cases altered, and an attempt made
to reduce it to some certain standard. The rule laid down for the
discharge of this task was, that, whenever Mr. Burke could be
perceived to have been uniform in his mode of spelling, that was
considered as decisive; but where he varied, (and as he was in the habit
of writing by dictation, and leaving to others the superintendence of the
press, he was peculiarly liable to variations of this sort) the best
received authorities were directed to be followed. The reader, it is
trusted, will find this object, too much disregarded in modern books,
has here been kept in view throughout. The quotations which are
interspersed through the works of Mr Burke, and which were frequently
made by him from memory, have been generally compared with the
original authors. Several mistakes in printing, of one word for another,
by which the sense was either perverted or obscured, are now rectified.
Two or three small insertions have also been made from a quarto copy
corrected by Mr. Burke himself. From the same source something more
has been drawn in the shape of notes, to which are subscribed his

initials. Of this number is the explanation of that celebrated phrase, "the
swinish multitude": an explanation which was uniformly given by him
to his friends, in conversation on the subject. But another note will
probably interest the reader still more, as being strongly expressive of
that parental affection which formed so amiable a feature in the
character of Mr. Burke. It is in page 203 of Vol. V., where he points out
a considerable passage as having been supplied by his "lost son".[7]
Several other parts, possibly amounting altogether to a page or
thereabout, were indicated in the same manner; but, as they in general
consist of single sentences, and as the meaning of the mark by which
they were distinguished was not actually expressed, it has not been
thought necessary to notice them particularly.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] London, F. and C. Rivington, 1803. 8 vols.
[7] In "Reflections on the Revolution in France,"--indicated by
foot-note in loco.

A
VINDICATION OF NATURAL SOCIETY:
OR,
A VIEW OF THE MISERIES AND EVILS ARISING TO MANKIND
FROM EVERY SPECIES OF ARTIFICIAL SOCIETY.
IN A LETTER TO LORD ****,
BY A LATE NOBLE WRITER.
1756.

PREFACE.
Before the philosophical works of Lord Bolingbroke had appeared,
great things were expected from the leisure of a man, who, from the
splendid scene of action in which his talents had enabled him to make
so conspicuous a figure, had retired to employ those talents in the
investigation of truth. Philosophy began to congratulate herself upon
such a proselyte from the world of business, and hoped to have
extended her power under the auspices of such a leader. In the midst of
these pleasing expectations, the works themselves at last appeared in
full body, and with great pomp. Those who searched in them for new

discoveries in the mysteries of nature; those who expected something
which might explain or direct the operations of the mind; those who
hoped to see morality illustrated and enforced; those who looked for
new helps to society and government; those who