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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
Burke, Edmund. An eminent British statesman and orator; born in Dublin, Jan. 12?, 1729; died in Beaconsfield, England, July 9, 1797. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, 1748; studied law, and in 1750 began literary work. Elected to Parliament, he made his first speech in 1766; and from that date until 1790 was one of the chief guides and inspirers of the revived Whig party. His speeches and pamphlets are still considered the most striking and suggestive manuals of political philosophy in modern times. They, with his miscellaneous writings, are all included in his ‘Works and Correspondence’ (5 vols., 1852). Among his most important works aside from his speeches are: ‘A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’ (1756); ‘Reflections on the French Revolution’ (1790); and ‘Letters on a Regicide Peace.’ (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).