CONTENTS. Page Advertisement to the prefent Edition A Vindication of Natural Society: or, a View of the Miferies and Evils arifing to Mankind from every Species of Artificial Society A Philofophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. HE late Mr. Burke, from a principle of TH unaffected humility, which they, who were the most intimately acquainted with his character, best know to have been in his eftimation one of the most important moral duties, never himself made any collection of the various publications with which, during a period of forty years, he adorned and enriched the literature of this country. When, however, the rapid and unexampled demand for his "Reflexions on the Revolution of France," had unequivocally teftified his celebrity as a writer, fome of his friends fo far prevailed upon him, that he permitted them to put forth a regular edition of his works. Accordingly, three volumes in quarto appeared under that title in 1792, printed for the late Mr. Dodsley. That a 3 That edition, therefore, has been made the foundation of the prefent, for which a form has been chosen better adapted to publick convenience. Such errours of the prefs as have been difcovered in it are here rectified: in other refpects it is faithfully followed, except that in one inftance, an accident of little moment has occafioned a flight deviation from the ftrict chronological arrangement; and that on the other hand, a speech of confpicuous excellence, on his declining the poll at Bristol, in 1780, is here, for the first time, inferted in its proper place. As the activity of the Author's mind, and the lively intereft which he took in the welfare of his country, ceafed only with his life, many fubfequent productions iffued from his pen, which were received in a manner correfponding with his diftinguifhed reputation. He wrote alfo various tracts, of a lefs popular description, which he designed for private circulation, |