Conservatism

Excerpt from Conservatism

A small additional difficulty must also be noted. Conservatism may he understood in two senses. It may mean the tenets of the Conservative Party, or it may mean a natural disposition in the human mind not by any means confined to those persons who vote on the Conservative side in party politics. To diminish the confusion that arises from this ambiguity I have endeavoured, when the word is used in the second sense, as what may he called pure or natural conservatism, to write it without a capital letter. When it is used in the more particular sense as the faith of the Conservative Party, it is written Con scrvatism.

The Conservatism of the Conservative Party, modern Conserm'. Ism, as we may say, is of course largely recruited from and dependent on the natural conservatism that is found in almost every human mind. It will be proper. Therefore, to begin with some discussion of that pure or natural conservatism.