A Vindication of Natural Society

A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind is a work by Edmund Burke published in 1756. It is a satire of Lord Bolingbroke's deism. Burke confronted Bolingbroke not in the sphere of religion but civil society and government, arguing that his arguments against revealed religion could apply to all institutions. So close to Bolingbroke's style was the work, that Burke's ironic intention was missed by some readers, leading Burke in his preface to the second edition (1757) to make plain that it was a satire. Nonetheless, this work was considered by William Godwin to be the first literary expression of philosophical anarchism.

Most historians believe "Vindication" was intended as satire, but some others disagree. For example, Murray Rothbard argues that Burke wrote the Vindication in earnest but later wished to disavow it for political reasons. Rothbard's argument is based on a misunderstanding. He believes it took nine years (until 1765) for Edmund Burke to divulge that he was the author of the work, and only claimed it to be a satire to save his then spawning political career. In reality Edmund Burke reveals both his authorship and claims the book as a satire in the preface to is second edition published in 1757, long before he would embark upon a political career.

Among passages that have been taken both as Swiftian irony and as a theoretical realization of the danger such controversial opinions may have upon a career is:

The preface presents the occasion of the essay as a riposte to the philosophy of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (died 1751), whose Collected Works and Letters had been published by David Mallet in 5 volumes in 1754. A new preface was written by Burke after his authorship was discovered. In this apologetic preface, he wrote that Vindication was inspired by "seeing every Mode of Religion attacked in a lively Manner, and the Foundation of every Virtue, and of all Government, sapped with great Art and much Ingenuity" in Lord Bolingbroke's collected Works. This author's design has been to show

The author contrasts Natural Society with Political Society beginning with a distrust of the Mind, which "every Day invents some new artificial Rule to guide that Nature which if left to itself were the best and surest Guide." He proposes to set out to identify those "unalterable Relations which Providence has ordained that every thing should bear to every other. These Relations, which are Truth itself, the Foundation of Virtue, and consequently, the only Measures of Happiness."

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