ABSTRACT
The most serious error in the interpretation of Edmund Burke's political philosophy and practical career in parliament has been the general failure to perceive his full and lifelong acceptance of the classical and Scholastic conception of the moral Natural Law. Generally, Burke was content to fulfill the Natural Law indirectly, through the concrete constitutional, legal, and political instruments of the state. Burke's faith in the Natural Law supplied the religious spirit that infuses his entire political philosophy. He was the foremost modern Christian humanist in politics because he saw the world and the nature of man through the revelations of Christianity and the right reason of Natural Law. The positivist Sir Leslie Stephen, a more perceptive writer, summarized Burke's philosophy as "theological utilitarianism" and noted a close general connection between Burke's supposed utilitarianism and his allusions to metaphysical rights.
