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The Aesthetic Dimension of Burke's Political Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Neal Wood
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Extract

Apparently no systematic effort has been made to ascertain whether a relation exists between the aesthetic theory of Burke's The Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and his political ideas. This omission would be readily understandable if the book were an insignificant and immature effort, or if the author at some later time had drastically altered his views, or if he had lost his interest in the arts. But all the evidence seems to be to the contrary. The work has been appraised as “among the most important documents of its century” to which men of great stature were indebted, including Johnson, Blake, Wordsworth, Hardy, Diderot, Lessing, and Kant. Although Burke did write a first draft while he was an undergraduate in Trinity College, Dublin, he continued to work upon it six or seven more years. Except for the extensive revisions for the second edition of 1759, revisions which did not modify the basic thesis, Burke evidently made no textual changes in the numerous subsequent editions. Nothing that Burke said or wrote indicates that he had second thoughts about the substance of the argument. And to the end of his days he maintained his vital interest in the arts. He was an intimate of Oliver Goldsmith, David Garrick, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the friend and patron of the two painters, George Barret and James Barry, and a member of the Royal Academy. Nor can the failure to consider the question of the connection between the aesthetics and the politics be due to the unfamiliarity of students of Burke's political thought with The Sublime and Beautiful.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , November 1964 , pp. 41 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1964

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References

1. The text used throughout the essay is J. T. Boulton's invaluable critical edition, Burke, Edmund, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (London and New York, 1958)Google Scholar. Roman numerals cited in the footnotes are to Boulton's Preface and illuminating Introduction.

The author wishes to thank T. I. Cook of The Johns Hopkins University, whose perceptive criticism made the writing of this essay possible, but who, of course, is in no way responsible for its final form.

2. Ibid., p. ix.

3. Ibid., pp. xv-xviii.

4. Ibid., p. xxv.

5. Ibid., pp. xxv-xxvi.

6. Ibid., pp. cix-cxii, for Burke's relations with Barret and Barry.

7. For example, see Canavan, Francis P., The Political Reason of Edmund Burke (Durham, N.C., 1960), pp. 36–42Google Scholar; Frisch, Morton J., “Burke on Theory,” Cambridge Journal, VII (1954), 292–97Google Scholar.

8. Burke, The Sublime and Beautiful, Pt. 2, sec. v, “Power,” pp. 64-70; Pt. 3, sec. x, “How Far the Idea of Beauty May Be Applied to the Qualities of the Mind,” pp. 110-11; Pt. 3, sec. xi, “How Far the Idea of Beauty May be Applied to Virtue,” p. 112; Pt. 4, sec. xxiv, “Concerning Smallness,” pp. 156-59.

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10. Ibid., pp. 33-34.

11. Ibid., p. 37.

12. Ibid., pp. 39-40.

13. Ibid., p. 43.

14. Ibid., p. 52.

15. Ibid., p. 38.

16. Ibid., pp. 40, 43.

17. Ibid., pp. 44-51.

18. Ibid., p. 44.

19. Ibid., esp., pp. 39-40, 42-43, 51-52, 57, 91, 124-25. Pt. 2, pp. 57-87, is devoted to the sublime, and Pt. 3, pp. 91-125, to the beautiful.

20. Ibid., p. 39.

21. Ibid., pp. 122-23.

22. Ibid., p. 51.

23. Ibid., p. 91.

24. Ibid., pp. 104, 119.

25. Ibid., pp. 120, 124-25, 156-57.

26. Ibid., pp. 25-26.

27. Ibid., pp. 46, 49, 57.

28. Ibid., pp. 57, 112.

29. Ibid., pp. 110-11.

30. Ibid., pp. 52, 107.

31. Ibid., pp. 92-110.

32. Ibid., pp. 22-27.

33. Ibid., for the opposition of imagination and reason, pp. 92-93, 107-09, 112; for the opposition of imagination and judgment, pp. 13, 17-19, 22-26.

34. Ibid., p. 25.

35. Ibid., p. 107.

36. Ibid., p. 49.

37. Ibid., pp. 92-110.

38. Ibid., pp. 109, 112.

39. Ibid., p. 53.

40. Ibid., esp. pp. 110-11.

41. Ibid., p. 158.

42. Ibid., p. 111.

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47. This is also true in regard to the army and the role of the officer corps. See Burke's comments upon the French Army, Ibid., III, 511-28.

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53. Ibid., V, 317-18. Also see II, 239; IV, 66-67.

54. Ibid., I, 527.

55. On party, ibid., I, esp. 271-72, 424-25, 525-37.

56. Ibid., I, 529.

57. Ibid., III, 334.

58. Ibid., III, 474.

59. Ibid., VII, 97.

60. Ibid., III, 478.

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64. Ibid., V, 185.

65. Ibid., XII, 164.

66. Ibid., III, 332-37.

67. Ibid., V, 310.

68. Ibid., III, 332.

69. Ibid., V, 310.

70. Ibid., V, 167.

71. Ibid., VII, 27.

72. Ibid., V, 311.

73. Ibid., V, 311.

74. Ibid., II, 202-03; III, 412-15; IV, 174-75; V, 127, 222-28, 467-73.

75. Ibid., I, 426.

76. Ibid., II, 238-39.

77. Ibid., III, 333.

78. Ibid., IV, 24-26; III, 336.

79. Ibid., IV, 26-30.

80. Ibid., IV, 30-31.

81. Ibid., IV, 31.

82. Ibid., IV, 30.

83. Ibid., III, 332.

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85. Ibid., p. 26.

86. Ibid., p. 24.

87. Hurne, David, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A. (Oxford, 1888), p. 415Google Scholar.

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90. Ibid., II, 239, 396-97; IV, 66-67.

91. Ibid., V, 197.

92. Ibid., VII, 335-64.

93. Ibid., III, 411-12.

94. Ibid., VII, esp. 343, 362-64.

95. Ibid., III, 411-12.

96. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, ch. xvii, The Prince and the Discourses, tr. Ricci, Luigi [Modern Library] (New York, 1940), pp. 61–62Google Scholar.

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102. Burke, , The Sublime and Beautiful, p. 58Google Scholar. Burke in his political works occasionally suggests aidos in approximately its original sense. For example, in Works, III, 385–86Google Scholar, he refers to the seizure of the monasteries by Henry VIII. But such tyrannical acts in the English past are saved from the evil that is occurring in France: “The power which was above all fear and all remorse was not set above all shame. Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart, nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.” This sense of shame depends upon the nature of the prevailing manners in society.

103. Burke, , The Sublime and Beautiful, pp. 67–70Google Scholar.

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105. Ibid., p. 78.

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108. Ibid., IV, 212-13.

109. Ibid., V, 210.

110. For example, Ibid., I, 520; III, 562; VI, 100-101; VII, 91. Burke's architectural imagery in II, 155 is obviously classical rather than medieval. In discussing six propositions which are concerned with the establishment of proper relations between Great Britain and the American colonies, he says: “I think these six massive pillars will be of strength sufficient to support the temple of British Concord.”

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115. See Boorstin, Daniel J., The Mysterious Science of the Law: an Essay on Blackstone's Commentaries (Cambridge, Mass., 1941), pp. 85–105Google Scholar. The frontispiece of Boorstin's book, entitled “The Awesome Majesty of English Law,” is a reproduction of an old engraving which portrays the impeachment of Warren Hastings at the Bar of the House of Lords on February 13, 1788. Boorstin's description is as follows: “… the scene shows the panoply and splendour of English law in Blackstone's day, and illustrates some of the impressive qualities which enabled the Commentaries to make the study of English law a mysterious science.” Mysterious Science, p. xv.

116. Blackstone, , Commentaries, III, 268,Google Scholar as quoted in Boorstin, , Mysterious Science, p. 104Google Scholar. The four volumes of the Commentaries appeared in 1765, 1766, 1768, 1769.

117. Hooker, Richard, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity [Everyman] i, 3, (London, 1954)Google Scholar, esp. Bk. IV, Vol. I, 361-63.

118. Wallas, Graham, Human Nature in Politics (London, 1908)Google Scholar. Wallas's young student, Lippman, Walter, in A Preface to Politics (New York, 1914)Google Scholar, can be said to have continued the tradition and to have indicated the future course that much of American political science was to follow. On the subject of Wallas and Lippman see Crick, Bernard, The American Science of Politics: Its Origins and Conditions (London, 1959), pp. 109–11Google Scholar.

119. Bagehot, Walter, The English Constitution, Introduction by Balfour, Lord (London, New York, and Toronto, 1949), p. 236Google Scholar.

120. Burke, , Works, V, 311.Google Scholar