Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Reflections on the Revolution in France, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Use and Abuse of History
Nature, Tradition, and Wisdom
Revolution and Reform
Theory vs. Practicality
Summary
Analysis
What is liberty, Burke wonders, without virtue? It is actually “folly, vice, and madness.” It’s easy to form a government, and to grant freedom, but to form a free government “requires much thought, deep reflection, a […] combining mind.”
Burke returns to some of the main themes of the work. He repeats his point that making a workable government is difficult, and that it especially cannot be done in the absence of virtuous character.
Themes
Burke commends the example of the British constitution to the French. He believes the “happy situation” of England is owing to the whole of the constitution, and not any single part of it; to what has been left after several reformations, as well as what’s been improved. Any future change should be for the sake of preservation, and following the example of his ancestors—making “the reparation as nearly as possible in the style of the building.”
Burke reiterates the beauties of the enduring English constitution, which has endured precisely because of the people’s fidelity to the past and their cautiousness in making changes. Returning to the symbol of a building, he reminds his audience that making consistent repairs is completely different from tearing down a foundation.
Themes
Burke concludes that he can only recommend his opinions on the basis of his lifelong observation and long work in public service, exerting himself “For the liberty of others,” and in whose breast “no anger […] has ever been kindled, but by what he considered as tyranny.” He does not know that his beliefs are likely to change Depont’s, but perhaps they will someday be of some use to him, “in some future form which your commonwealth may take.”
It turns out that Depont is rather appalled by Burke’s anti-revolutionary sentiments, and that some of Burke’s most pessimistic predictions about the Revolution—especially about its violence—would come to pass. However, many of Burke’s arguments about the importance of history, tradition, nature, and practicality have been valued and appropriated across a broad political spectrum in later centuries.
Themes
