much fewer1. Give me leave to add also, that since it is our misfortune to have so many different opinions, we should not hide our talent in the earth, but exert it with all diligence in the great affair for the accomplishment of which we were sent into the world to witness salvation. God, all merciful, all good, has given us a guide, a talent to direct us in the slippery paths of the world; let us then my dear friend pray the Divine Being of His infinite mercy to help us in our undertaking by the saving and enlightening assistance of His Holy Spirit, while we seek what manner of serving Him will most please our great Creator; for it is impossible that all can be equally pleasing to Him, who has declared that as there is but one God so there is but one faith and one baptism. Oh my friend, what an account will those have to give, who, as if they were asleep, pass their lives without the least consideration of this! Will it be a sufficient excuse for them to say that their intention was to serve God in that way? No, No; it is the business of every one to search whether their way be good; and if any man who knows this to be his duty-as there is no Christian but does—if (I say) he willingly neglects this and be found in a wrong way, he will not be held guiltless before God. Then my dear Dick let us take this into consideration (for indeed it is a serious affair, and worth the attention even of our whole lives) and implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit which leads into all truth, and endeavour to walk piously and godlily in the path our Great Redeemer has showed us; confiding very little in our strength, but casting ourselves upon Him who died for us, and with great humility asking His assistance in knowing what manner of serving Him will best please Him, that we may not be in the number of those whose ignorance is justly imputed to themselves. If we do this, I do not in the least doubt but that God, of his great mercy, will guide us in the right road. I very much approve of the method you laid down for our correspondence; I will, as much as I can, observe it. I must own that I cant with any freedom write better; so you must excuse me in that part, and in point of style, but I hope to improve in that by degrees. I do not know to whom I could write with greater freedom and less regularity than to you, for as the thoughts come crowding into my head I cannot forbear putting 'em down, be they in what order or disorder they will. You will excuse me for this, and for what mistakes and incongruities you may find in my future letters; because you will believe that whether what I say be well or ill expressed, it comes from a sincere heart, and from one who is sincerely your friend. God gives me good resolves sometimes, and I lead a better life; they last for a time or so, sometimes more, sometimes less, and then through the fickleness of my temper and too great confidence in myself, I fall into my old courses; aye, often far worse. You see my weakness dear Dick, and my failings; plead and pray for me: we will pray for one another reciprocally. Praise be to His holy Name for all things, for every impulse of His Grace He gives me I praise Him and trust He will continue 'em to me, and make me persevere in 'em. Let us lead the best 1 Cp. Burke's speech on the second reading of a Bill for the relief of Protestant Dissenters. life we can, and make it our study to please Him the best we can, both in faith and works. I could write a great deal more with pleasure; I dare not say you would be tired with reading, but that I find my paper almost gone. I would have wrote to you last Sunday as you expected, had not the boy been returning with the horses, and I thought it a convenient opportunity of answering your favour, and sending a hat and a couple of books to Mick Kearney from his father1. I went to visit him as you desired me and find him no way backward after the character you gave me of him; I breakfasted with him this morning. Do not forget my best respects to the Master, all whose favours to me and all the advantages I received under his tuition I shall never forget. The same to Mrs Shackleton and Mrs Barnard2 and my love to Dick3. Tell him I am in a great hurry and will write next opportunity. Yours unalterably NED BURKE. Burke must, during his early years, have been subject to various religious impressions. His father was a member of the Established Church of Ireland: his mother was a Roman Catholic, whilst during his schooldays at Ballitore he passed under Quaker influence. But from the letter just cited he seems from the first to have had that strong affection for the Established form of religion which he always retained. This attitude of combined loyalty to his own Church and wide toleration towards other creeds will be found reproduced in his letters and speeches in after life. It is my humble and decided opinion (he wrote in 1795) that all three religions prevalent more or less in various parts of these Islands ought all in subordination to the legal establishments as they stand in the several countries to be all countenanced, protected and cherished". We are without Shackleton's reply to Burke's letter of 15th October. Some idea of its character may be gathered from Burke's next letter written in the beginning of his Junior Freshman Michael 1 Entered Ballitore School 13th July, 1743. He became a F.T.C.D. See ante p. 24; post p. 213. 2 Mrs Shackleton's maiden name was Margaret Wilkinson, a near relation of David Hall of Skipton in Yorkshire. Abraham Shackleton (Burke's schoolmaster) had been an assistant in a school kept by David Hall. Mrs Barnard, a widow, was sister of Mrs Abraham Shackleton. Mrs Leadbeater, her niece, describes her as "stout and active in her limbs, but being deprived of sight, she went about the house, felt the under parts of the furniture to try whether all was clean: examined closely the bottom of her petticoat lest a jag had been worn; made spring-pottage and sour-cake of which her friends partook; was led among her poor neighbours, to whom she made little presents of halfpenny lace, a row of pins, or gifts of equal value, which were kindly accepted from the simple, honest-hearted donor." (Leadbeater Papers, 1. 28.) 3 His brother Richard. 4 See the letter to Baron-then Wm. Smith, Esq.,-29th January, 1795, and also the letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, 26th May, 1795. Burke's Works, vol. II, pp. 448, 451, London, S. Holdsworth, 1842. mas Term in Trinity College, when he again expresses to his Quaker friend on 1st November, 1744, his views strangely formed so early in life, on the "crime of schism" and discusses the question of the ultimate salvation of all men. He tells him too how he finds it hard in Dublin to follow the gospel rule and his friend's advice. Edmund Burke to Rd. Shackleton. Arran Quay, Nov. 1. 1744. My dear Zelim's kind epistle had not been so long unanswered by his Mirza, but for the hurry of business which has constantly attended me since I received it, so that the post slipped over unknown to me. But we dont stand on forms and ceremonies like other correspondents. We know that it is not forgetfulness nor neglect of one another that can make a gap in our intercourse. The joy of receiving a letter wipes away the impatience of waiting for it. It is so with me and I daresay with you too. I am in a rhyming humour; and I believe I can express my sentiments to you better in verse than prose, on that head; and so take the best I can make in the time. As when some cloud in the ethereal way Darkens the sun, and robs us of the day; No joys can taste until her light returns. The golden sun pours forth his glorious rays; Lost treasures found with greater lustre smile. I must my dear Zelim beg pardon for having taken up so much of your time with trifles, and promise that in the rest of my letter I shall treat of something of more importance: and first to answer yours. I am of your opinion that those poor souls who never had the happiness of hearing that saving name, shall in no wise be damned. But as you know, my dear Zelim, there are several degrees of felicity-a lower one, which the mercy of God will suffer them to enjoy; but not anything to be compared to that of those who have lived and died in Christ. This is sincerely my belief of those; but I assure you that I dont think near so favourably of those sectaries you mentioned; many of them breaking, as they themselves con fess, for matters of indifference, and no way concerned in the only affair that is necessary, viz. our salvation; and what a great crime schism is, you can't be ignorant. This, and the reasons in my last, and if you consider what will occur to yourself, together with several texts, will bring you to my way of thinking on that point. Let us endeavour to live according to the rules of the gospel, and He that prescribed them, I hope, will consider our endeavours to please Him, and assist us in our designs. This my friend is your advice, and how hard it is for me to follow it! I am in the enemy's country-the townsman is beset on every side. It is here difficult to sit down and think seriously. Oh! how happy are you to live in the country! I assure you, my friend, that without the superior Grace of God I will find it very difficult to be commonly virtuous. I dont like that part of your letter wherein you say "You had the testimony of well doing in your breast." Whenever such notions rise again, endeavour to suppress them. It is one of the subtlest stratagems the enemy of mankind uses to delude us, that, by lulling us into a false peace, his conquest may be the easier. We should always be in no other than the state of a penitent, because the most righteous of us is no better than a sinner. Pray read the parable of the Pharisee and the publican who prayed in the temple. You see that I tell you what I think amiss in yours.-Why dont you use the same freedom with mine? Do, I beg you, because we shall be both of us improved by it. I have a great deal to say: but as this is a holiday, and I am going to the college, to evening prayers, I must write no more but defer it to another time. I was going to say something of natural philosophy, something of which I now read; and as you have lately been studying astronomy, I beg of you to communicate to me some of your observations, by which we may mutually improve. E. BURKE. Apart from any suggestion for the name Mirza, as taken from the Spectator, the style of this, and several other letters in the "Club "correspondence is reminiscent of Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes. Mirza was one of the correspondents in that famous series. See, for instance, Lettre X, Mirza à son ami Usbek, l'âme de notre société. Qu'il faut de violence pour rompre les engagements le cœur et l'esprit ont formés! que Nous disputons beaucoup ici; nos disputes roulent ordinairement sur la morale. Hier on mit en question si les hommes étaient heureux par les plaisirs et les satisfactions des sens, ou par la pratique de la vertu. Je t'ai souvent ouï dire que les hommes étaient nés pour être vertueux, et que la justice est une qualité qui leur est aussi propre que l'existence. Explique moi, je te prie, ce que tu veux dire. So to the "Club" group Shackleton was the soul of the circle; they were continually seeking his opinions and soliciting his judgment. Burke was familiar with the correspondence literature of France; he lauds Voiture as "a pattern for that way of writing1"; 1 See letter 11th December, 1746, post p. 106 and his admiration of Montesquieu was of "a genius not born in every country or every time1." In January, 1743-4, there was published in Dublin a little miscellany called the Meddler2. It was modelled on the form of the Spectator and Tatler. It had but a short existence, from the 5th January to 28th June, 1744. Its weekly issues contained some clever writing, and it is possible that Brennan, who was, as Burke described him, “a man of first rate genius thrown away and lost to the world3," may have edited it; and that some of the group of his Ballitore friends were contributors. The Reformer, which Burke produced in 1747-8, was very similar in form. The Meddler describes himself as "the son of an astute solicitor who married a giddy pated milliner," he informs the public he has the assistance of a club of six gentlemen in bringing out the paper who are determined to be useful and agreeable to the world and eschew all party controversy and political reflection. Madden in his History of Periodical Literature in Ireland calls attention to two articles of an exceptional ability which appeared as Letters from Aram in Ireland to his friend Helim at Sheraz, and says that the second of these articles might be attributed to Swift. Swift, however, had sunk into imbecility before the Meddler appeared. The first of these Persian letters was published shortly before, and the second shortly after, Burke entered Trinity. Several of Burke's letters resemble the cast of these two articles in the Meddler when stripped of their oriental setting. The first letter begins thus: Forty-two moons are passed since I saw my Helim, since Our souls were blended together in sweet discourse; our dispatches are only mediums by which our thoughts are conveyed to each other. May these emanations of the mind be as sparks to light up the remembrance of thy Aram, and keep alive the flame of Friendship in thy heart. My head is weary with making, and my hand with writing remarks; I hope shortly to be with thee, and present thee with the whole; However I shall now give thee specimens of what thou art to expect hereafter. The second letter is thus prefaced: How have I reckoned with tedious impatience the lingering hours, that I have passed in dull and painful absence, since I enjoyed the flowing sweets of my Helim's conversation? O when shall I, with eager and insatiable thirst, once more drink refreshing draughts of Friendship? When 1 Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. In the National Library, Dublin, No. 8205. * Letter, Burke to Shackleton, 15th August, 1761 (Fitzwilliam edition, vol. I, p. 36). Vol. 1, p. 308. |