James Cummins Bookseller

Reflections on the Revolution in France ... Second Edition ... [Bound with] Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution. Third Edition.

Burke, Edmund; and Thomas Paine.

London: J. Dodsley, 1790; London: J. S Jordan, 1791.

Price: $1,500.00

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About the item

iv, 356; x, [7]-171, [1]pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Contemporary speckled calf, red morocco labels, minor wear. [Burke:] Todd 53d; ESTC T120625; cf. PMM 239. [Paine:] ESTC T5867; Howes P31; cf. Gimbel/Yale 60.

Item #377094

A nicely bound set of later editions of two of the most pivotal constitutional pamphlets of the eighteenth century.

Burke's classical text in political theory constitutes one of the best-known and most influential intellectual attacks against the French Revolution and a defining work in Burke's formation of a political philosophy of conservatism. The groundbreaking work, hailed as "one of the most brilliant of all polemics" (PMM), greatly influenced conservative as well as classical liberal intellectuals and totally reshaped the way that the Revolution came to be viewed henceforth. "It is not to be wondered at that a man who desired justice for America but rejected Jefferson's doctrines would be deeply stirred by the events of 1789. To Burke an absorption with the end and neglect of the means was the most dreadful of sins. His anger and disgust were exacerbated by the dread that the aims, principles, methods and language which he detested in France might infect the people of England. This it was which provoked the 'Reflections', in which his distrust of the 'Perfectibilitarians' and of mere destructive criticism of institutions was magnificently voiced. To the view that the old régime was so rotten that wholesale revolution was necessary, Burke replied that any revolution that did not bring real liberty, which comes from the administration of justice under a settled constitution without bias from the mob, was no liberty. 'Alas!' he said, 'they little know how many a weary step is to be taken before they can form themselves into a mass which has a true political personality. The 'Reflections' achieved immediate success all over Europe, even though it cost Burke the allegiance of the Whigs. Lonely now, he finally enjoyed a European authority which he had never attained in his own country or with his own party. The other side found a trenchant spokesman in Paine's 'Rights of Man', which took the discussion beyond the limits of the government of France, but as the Terror grew, Burke seemed almost to be a prophet. In the eternal debate between the ideal and the practical, the latter had never had a more powerful or moving advocate, nor one whose own ideals were higher" (PMM).