The beauties of the late Right Hon. Edmund Burke, selected from the writings, &c. of that extraordinary man, ... To which is prefixed, a sketch of the life, with some original anecdotes of Mr. Burke. In two volumes.: [pt.2]

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Title: The beauties of the late Right Hon. Edmund Burke, selected from the writings, &c. of that extraordinary man, ... To which is prefixed, a sketch of the life, with some original anecdotes of Mr. Burke. In two volumes.: [pt.2]
Author: Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797.
Publication: London :: printed by J. W. Myers, and sold by W. West,; 1798.
Rights/Permissions: To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.lib.umich.edu/tcp/ecco/ for more information.
Link to this Item: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/004795912.0001.002
Cite this Item: "The beauties of the late Right Hon. Edmund Burke, selected from the writings, &c. of that extraordinary man, ... To which is prefixed, a sketch of the life, with some original anecdotes of Mr. Burke. In two volumes.: [pt.2]." In the digital collection Eighteenth Century Collections Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/004795912.0001.002. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 6, 2025.

Pages

LAW OF CHANGE.

WE must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. All we can do, and that human wis∣dom can do, is to provide that the change shall pro∣ceed by insensible degrees. This has all the benefits which may be in change, without any of the inconve∣niencies of mutation. Every thing is provided for as it arrives. This mode will, on the one hand, prevent the unfixing old interests at once; a thing which is apt to breed a black and sullen discontent in those who are at once dispossessed of all their influence and considera∣tion. This gradual course, on the other side, will pre∣vent men, long under depression, from being intoxicated with a large draught of new power, which they always abuse with a licentious insolence. But wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious, I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of enlargement than restriction.—Letter to Sir H. Langrishe, M. P.