...rather the happy effect of following nature, which is wisdom without reflection, and above it. ... The people of England well know, that the idea of...without at all excluding a principle of improvement' (ibid., p. 78). 'You [the French] had all those advantages in your ancient states; but you chose to...

...it is not reasonable to follow its order in the name of continuity. But Burke attributes to nature a "sure principle of transmission, without at all excluding a principle of improvement." Thus, when all is going well in politics, he can reasonably "presume" that nature's path is being followed....

...inheriting privileges, franchises and liberties from a long line of ancestors," the English well understood "that the idea of inheritance furnishes a sure principle of conservation and sure principle of transmission, without at all excluding a principle of improvement."42 Burke's principal...

...opinion" (162). As such, like all inheritances, it furnishes what Edmund Burke (1955) referred to as "a sure principle of conservation and a sure principle...without at all excluding a principle of improvement" (38). Common-law decision making provides a link between the knowledge held by past administrators...

...confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Besides, the people of England well know, that the...family settlement; grasped as in a kind of mortmain for ever. By a constitutional policy, working after the pattern of nature, we receive, we hold, we...

...confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.29 Besides, the people of England well know, that the...family settlement; grasped as in a kind of mortmain for ever.30 By a constitutional policy, working after the pattern of nature, we receive, we hold, we...

...confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors ... the people of England well know that the idea of inheritance furnishes XXIH a sure principle of conservatism... without at all excluding the principle of improvement.' 40...

...confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Besides, the people of England well know, that the...family settlement; grasped as in a kind of mortmain for ever. By a constitutional policy, working after the pattern of nature, we receive, we hold, we...

...system according to a patrilineal model of inherited wealth, backed up by organic notions of continuity: the people of England well know, that the idea of...conservation, and a sure principle of transmission; . . . Whatever advantages are obtained by a state proceeding on these maxims, are locked fast as in...

...family, property, and civil society as immemorial and indissoluble.5 Burke's concern here is to furnish "a sure principle of conservation and a sure principle...without at all excluding a principle of improvement" (29); while he does not rule out political change and economic expansion, the two watchwords of the...