The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate.
Edmund Burke (1811). “Maxims and opinions, moral, political and economical, with characters, from the works of ... Edmund Burke”, p.80
