SOURCE:Charles Parkin, "The Natural Relation of Society and Government," in The Moral Basis of Burke's Political Thought: An Essay, 1956. Reprint by Russell & Russell, 1968, pp. 30-53.

Below, Parkin explains why Burke believed in the natural suitability of a Parliament composed of members of the aristocracy, and discusses Burke's ideas about the principles by which they should govern.

The lower and higher natures in man are held in unity by the 'great primeval contract of eternal society'. For the individual, therefore, apprehension of the moral order comes to him through his instinctive nature.

Dark and inscrutable are the ways by which we come into the world. The instincts which give rise to this mysterious process of nature are not of our making. But out of physical causes, unknown to us, perhaps unknowable, arise moral duties, which, as we are able perfectly to comprehend, we are bound indispensably to perform...