The displacement of James II was due to a fear lest his...

The displacement of James II was due to a fear lest his critics should weaken the throne and the hereditary principle; hence the preference for the next line in succession, even though it was the German line of Hanover, in order that that principle might not be discredited. But Burke was not merely concerned with history. Not only was 1689 not an appeal to natural rights, there are no such rights. They are metaphysical fictions.

Burke says of the writers of the French Revolution that they are “so taken up with their theories about the rights of man, that they have totally forgotten his nature.” By nature Burke does not mean a state prior to a social contract, but society as it is, and above all, as it has grown to be.

Theoretically based plans for the reform of society are violations of a divinely ordained history of social growth, so that Burke can speak of social development as “the known march of the ordinary Providence of God.” Established institutions are thus rated as high by Burke as they are low by Rousseau. Both invoke “nature,” but while for Rousseau nature is contrasted with society, for Burke nature includes society.

Burke however does not view nature simply as all that is; for if nature were all-inclusive, one could not war against it, as revolutionaries do. Nature is in fact equated by Burke with certain established norms and procedures, including the procedure of relying on prevailing habit rather than on argument.

“Politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human nature, of which the reason is but a part, and by no means the greatest part.”59 This is not just a doctrine about politics, but about the moral life in general.

Hence Burke’s defense of what he calls “prejudice.” “Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit, and not a series of unconnected acts.”60 Burke’s positions are of importance, if only because of their subsequent influence.

The assessment of them confronts one initial difficulty, namely that if Burke is right, rational argument upon these topics is misplaced. Hence by even venturing to argue with him we appear to presuppose the truth of what we are trying to establish. But this difficulty is not in fact ours, but Burke’s.