Editing Edmund Burke (section)

==Early writing==
The late [[Lord Bolingbroke]]'s ''Letters on the Study and Use of History'' was published in 1752 and his collected works appeared in 1754. This provoked Burke into writing his first published work, ''[[A Vindication of Natural Society|A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind]]'', appearing in Spring 1756. Burke imitated Bolingbroke's style and ideas in a ''[[reductio ad absurdum]]'' of his arguments for [[deist]]ic [[rationalism]] in order to demonstrate their [[absurdity]].<ref name="Prior, p. 45">Prior, p. 45.</ref><ref>Jim McCue, ''Edmund Burke and Our Present Discontents'' (The Claridge Press, 1997), p. 14.</ref>

[[File:Edmund Burke2 c.jpg|thumb|In ''[[A Vindication of Natural Society]]'', Burke argued: "The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own."]]

Burke claimed that Bolingbroke's arguments against [[Revelation|revealed religion]] could apply to all social and civil institutions as well.<ref name="Critical Dict">{{cite book |title=A critical dictionary of English literature and British and American authors, living and deceased, from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the nineteenth century. Containing over forty-six thousand articles (authors), with forty indexes of subjects |ol=7102188M |url=https://archive.org/details/criticaldictiona01alliuoft |author-link=Samuel Austin Allibone |last=Allibone |first=Samuel Austin |year=1908 |publisher=[[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]] |volume=1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/criticaldictiona01alliuoft/page/289 289]}}</ref> [[Lord Chesterfield]] and [[Bishop Warburton]] as well as others initially thought that the work was genuinely by Bolingbroke rather than a [[satire]].<ref name="Prior, p. 45"/><ref>McCue, p. 145.</ref> All the reviews of the work were positive, with critics especially appreciative of Burke's quality of writing. Some reviewers failed to notice the [[ironic]] nature of the book which led to Burke stating in the preface to the second edition (1757) that it was a satire.<ref name="Lock, Burke. Vol. I, p. 85">Lock, ''Burke. Vol. I'', p. 85.</ref>

[[Richard Hurd (clergyman)|Richard Hurd]] believed that Burke's imitation was near-perfect and that this defeated his purpose, arguing that an [[ironist]] "should take care by a constant exaggeration to make the ''ridicule'' shine through the Imitation. Whereas this ''Vindication'' is everywhere enforc'd, not only in the language, and on the principles of L. Bol., but with so apparent, or rather so real an earnestness, that half his purpose is sacrificed to the other".<ref name="Lock, Burke. Vol. I, p. 85"/> A minority of scholars have taken the position that in fact Burke did write the ''Vindication'' in earnest, later disowning it only for political reasons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard11.html |title=Edmund Burke, Anarchist |access-date=14 October 2007 |last=Rothbard |first=Murray |author-link=Murray Rothbard |archive-date=12 January 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140112124418/http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard11.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[[Joseph Sobran|Sobran, Joseph]], [http://www.sobran.com/columns/2002/020124.shtml Anarchism, Reason, and History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715190137/http://www.sobran.com/columns/2002/020124.shtml |date=15 July 2024 }}: "Oddly enough, the great conservative Edmund Burke began his career with an anarchist tract, arguing that the state was naturally and historically destructive of human society, life, and liberty. Later he explained that he'd intended his argument ironically, but many have doubted this. His argument for anarchy was too powerful, passionate, and cogent to be a joke. Later, as a professional politician, Burke seems to have come to terms with the state, believing that no matter how bloody its origins, it could be tamed and civilized, as in Europe, by "the spirit of a gentleman, and the spirit of religion". But even as he wrote, the old order he loved was already breaking down."</ref>

In 1757, Burke published a treatise on [[aesthetics]] titled ''[[A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful]]'' that attracted the attention of prominent Continental thinkers such as [[Denis Diderot]] and [[Immanuel Kant]]. It was his only purely philosophical work, completed in 1753.<ref>Lock, vol 1, p. 92.</ref> When asked by Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]] and [[French Laurence]] to expand it thirty years later, Burke replied that he was no longer fit for abstract speculation.<ref>Prior, p. 47.</ref>

On 25 February 1757, Burke signed a contract with [[Robert Dodsley]] to write a "history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the end of the reign of Queen Anne", its length being eighty quarto sheets (640 pages), nearly 400,000 words. It was to be submitted for publication by Christmas 1758.<ref>Lock, ''Burke. Vol. I'', p. 143.</ref> Burke completed the work to the year 1216 and stopped; it was not published until after Burke's death, in an 1812 collection of his works, ''An Essay Towards an Abridgement of the English History''. [[G. M. Young]] did not value Burke's history and claimed that it was "demonstrably a translation from the French".<ref>G. M. Young, 'Burke', ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', XXIX (London, 1943), p. 6.</ref> On commenting on the story that Burke stopped his history because [[David Hume]] published his, [[Lord Acton]] said "it is ever to be regretted that the reverse did not occur".<ref>Herbert Butterfield, ''Man on His Past'' (Cambridge, 1955), p. 69.</ref>

During the year following that contract, Burke founded with Dodsley the influential ''[[Annual Register]]'', a publication in which various authors evaluated the international political events of the previous year.<ref>Prior, pp. 52–53.</ref> The extent to which Burke contributed to the ''Annual Register'' is unclear.<ref>Thomas Wellsted Copeland, 'Edmund Burke and the Book Reviews in Dodsley's Annual Register', ''Publications of the [[Modern Language Association]]'', Vol. 57, No. 2. (Jun. 1942), pp. 446–468.</ref> In his biography of Burke, Robert Murray quotes the ''Register'' as evidence of Burke's opinions, yet Philip Magnus in his biography does not cite it directly as a reference.<ref name="Copeland, p. 446">Copeland, p. 446.</ref> Burke remained the [[chief editor]] of the publication until at least 1789 and there is no evidence that any other writer contributed to it before 1766.<ref name="Copeland, p. 446"/>

On 12 March 1757, Burke married Jane Mary Nugent (1734–1812), daughter of Dr. [[Christopher Nugent (physician)|Christopher Nugent]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/41200|title=Summary of Individual &#124; Legacies of British Slave-ownership|website=www.ucl.ac.uk|access-date=31 October 2015|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307153818/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/41200|url-status=live}}</ref> a Catholic physician who had provided him with medical treatment at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]. Their son [[Richard Burke Jr.|Richard]] was born on 9 February 1758 while a second son, Christopher (born that December), died in infancy. Burke also helped raise a [[Ward (law)|ward]], Edmund Nagle (later [[Admiral]] Sir [[Edmund Nagle]]), the son of a maternal cousin orphaned in 1763.<ref name="ODNB">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19720 Nagle, Sir Edmund], ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', [[John Knox Laughton|J. K. Laughton]], (subscription required), Retrieved 22 April 2012</ref>

At about this same time, Burke was introduced to [[William Gerard Hamilton]] (known as "Single-speech Hamilton"). When Hamilton was appointed [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]], Burke accompanied him to Dublin as his [[Parliamentary Private Secretary|private secretary]], a position he held for three years. In 1765, Burke became [[Parliamentary Private Secretary|private secretary]] to the liberal Whig politician [[Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham|Charles, Marquess of Rockingham]], then [[Prime Minister of Great Britain]], who remained Burke's close friend and associate until his death in 1782.