B U R K E. 
term, oftener denoting ex tern.d. appearances than lolid pro¬ 
perty. And this Teems t'ne more applicable to Mr. Burke’s 
cafe, becaule, when he had entered himfelf of the Temple, 
he fubmitted to the drudgery of writing for daily, week¬ 
ly, -and monthly, publications. It is not probable that a 
nran, po fie I Fed of a competent fubfiflence in his. own pri¬ 
vate fortune, would leek, to earn money by hired writing ’ 
for newfpapers and magazines. But,were we to admit that 
his circumflances were good, we fhould by no means, by 
the admilfion, exalt his merit: the more difficulties he had 
to combat, the greater force of mind was required to fur- 
mount them. To periodical publications he contributed 
effays on various fu-bjeCts of general literature and parti¬ 
cular politics. Thefe effays, though uniting information, 
reafoning, invention, and .compofition, much beyond co¬ 
temporary writers, did not immediately enable their au¬ 
thor to emerge from obfeurity. He frequently palfed his 
leifure hours in the company of Mrs. Woffington, a cele¬ 
brated actrefs. This feveral of lvis detractors have en¬ 
deavoured to make a fubject of ridicule. But it is certain, 
that this lady’s converfation was no lefs courted by men of 
wit and genius, than by men of pleafure. It is equally 
certain that he was, on the whole, a man of great tem¬ 
perance. Bur, whatever may have been his oceafional 
avocations, in the Temple he applied himfelf with the 
mod: vigorous induflry to writing effays and increafirig his 
knowledge. Applying to learning and feienee in general, 
the ftudies to which lie gave himfelf up with the mo ft pe¬ 
culiar zeal were thofe which unfolded human nature,— 
hiflory, ethics, politics, pneumatology, poetry, and criti- 
eifm. His health was gradually impaired by this intenfe' 
application, and an alarming illnefs enfued. He reforted 
for medical advice to Dr. Nugent, a phylicianof great ta¬ 
lents and (kill, and of no lefs benevolence. The doctor, 
confidering that the dilfurbances incidental to chambers 
mull impede the recovery of his patient, kindly offered 
him apartments in his own houle. Attention and tender 
treatment* not from the doCtor only, but all the family, 
had foon a more powerful effect in producing the refiora- 
tiori of his health than any medicines. Among the mod 
attentive to her father’s patient and gued was Mifs Nu¬ 
gent, whole general amiablenefs and particular tehdernefs 
to himfelf- foon excited a pallion in the fenfible heart of 
Mr. Burke. He offered her his : hand, which fhe accepted ; 
and, din ing a long life of various vicifiitudes and trying 
fituations, had, in her- foothing.and affectionate conduCt, 
every reafon to rejoice at. his lot. 
Hitherto his mental powers and acquirements were but 
partially known. The exertion of his literary talents had 
been confined to detached effays. His fir ft acknowledged 
production is. his Vindication of Natural- Society. This 
performance is an.important objeCfc to his biographers, as 
it marks the found principles of religion, philolophy, and 
politics, which he had early imbibed. In this work, tho’ 
he intentionally draws a wrong concluiion from his fiate- 
ment of exifling- abufes, the datement itfel-f is very elo¬ 
quent, and not much overcharged. Pretending to prove 
that, becaufe wars often take place between political fo- 
cieties, political fociety itfelf is bad, he draws a very dri- 
king and glowing picture of the horrors of war; and en¬ 
ters into a particular detail of the butcheries arifing from 
the enmities of men. He gives a fummary of the effeCt-s 
of the proceedings of Sefodris, Semiramis, and other con¬ 
querors, Affyrian, Babylonian, Perfian, Grecian, and Ro¬ 
man; tlie northern l'warm, the Saracens, Tartars, and 
thofe of more modern times, in the bloodlhed arid devaf- 
tation that they liave caufed. “ From (lays lie) the ear- 
lied dawning! of policy to this day, the invention of men 
lias been fharpening and improving the mydery ’of mur¬ 
der, from the rude effays of clubs and dones to the prefent 
perfection of gunnery, canoneering, bombarding, mining, 
and all other fpecics of artificial, learned, and refined, 
cruelty, in which we are now lb expert, and which make 
a principal part of what politicians have taught us to be¬ 
lieve is opr. principal glory,” He .ironically imputes the 
evils he has detailed to political fociety, alleging that, if 
men were not fo alfociated, it would have been impodible 
to find numbers fufficient for fuch daughters agreed in the 
fame bloody purpofe. “ How far then nature would have 
carried us, we may judge by the examples of thofe ani¬ 
mals who dill follow her laws, and even of thofe to whom 
die has given difpo'fitions more fierce, and arms more ter¬ 
rible, tiian ever The intended we ihould ufe. It is an in- . 
contedible truth, that there is more havock made in one 
year by men, of men, than has been made by all the lions, 
tygers, panthers, ounces, leopards, hyenas, rhinocerofes, 
elephants, bears, and wolves, upon their feveral fpecies 
fince the beginning of the world, though thefe agree ill 
enough with each other.” 
Soon after his Vindication of Natural Society, he pub- 
liflied an Effay on the Sublime and Beautiful, a work which 
diewed a genius much beyond that of common critics. In 
this performance Mr. Burke approves himfelf a phijofo- 
phical anatomift of the human mind. In refpebi of tade 
and its objects, he is what Hu-tchinfon is in refpecl to the 
affections, and Locke to the underdanding—the fird who 
by experiment and analylis invedigated an important Cub- 
jeCt in pneumatology. Though perhaps he is fomewhat 
fanciful in parts of his theory, lie is evidently a perfpicu- 
ous obferver, and a philofophical inveftigator. In his de¬ 
tail of condiments, he is accurate and comprehendve ; in 
his adignation of efficient caufes, often juft, femetimes'ima¬ 
ginative, always acute and ingenious ; in-his reafoning on 
final caufes, profound,, wife, and pious. From this work 
Mr. Burke foon-became univerfally known and admired. 
The ignorant and fuperficial, front the fubjefl, believed 
him to be a man of tade; the learned and the wife, from 
the execution, knew him to be a man of tade and profound 
philofophy. On perilling the work, his father was fo en¬ 
raptured as to fend him iool. by which, and the fale of 
his book, he was relieved from Tome pecuniary embarraff- 
inents which prelfed him at the time. Fie began now to 
be known as a man of great genius and erudition ; and, in 
1758, he propofed to Mr. Dodfley a plan of an Annual 
Regider of the civil, political, and literary, tranfaCtions 
of the times. Mr. Dodfley acceded, and the work was 
carried on either by Burke, or under his immediate infpec- 
tion. Afterwards, when he was immerfed in aCtive poli¬ 
tics, it was conduced under his general fuperintendence, 
with only oceafional exertions of his own genius. 
He had, at an early period of his life, become connect¬ 
ed with Mr. Hamilton, known by the name of Single-fpceck 
Hamilton, from an uncommonly-excellent fpeech which he 
once delivered in the houfe of commons. As he never 
diflinguiflied himfelf by any other difplay of eloquence in- 
the Briti(h- fenate, his friend, Mr. Burke, has been fuppo- 
fed the author of that oration. What has ferved to con¬ 
firm the public in this opinion is, that afterwards, when 
Mr. Hamilton went over as fecretary to lord Halifax, lord 
lieutenant of Ireland, he prevailed on Mr. Burke to ac¬ 
company him, and procured for him a penfion on the Irilh. 
eflablifhment of 300I. a-year. Mr. Hamilton now diltin- 
guilhed himfelf by a fingle-fpecch in the Irilh parliament, 
which Burke was alfo fuppofed to have compofed. But 
thofe who were bed acquainted with Hamilton and Burke, 
do not think, that the latter compofed any of the fpeeches 
fpoken by the former. The talents of Hamilton, and his 
literary attainments, were very great, and fully adequate 
to the production of the fpeeches which he ipoke. An 
ample fortune, however, precluding the neceflity of form¬ 
ing habits of indudry, and affording the means of pleafu- 
rable indulgence, to which he was prone, encouraged art 
indolence which kept his great talents from being cxerci- 
fed. Burke, on the contrary, was at no period of his 
life addicted to difiipation. Of gaming he.is faid'to have 
been fo completely,ignorant, that he hardly knew a Angle 
game at cards. To fuch a mind the refources were fo 
abundant as to render unneceffary the aid of pictured pafle- 
board. 
The time was now approaching when his talents were to 
fo§. 
