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PARTISAN REVIEW
Myth draws its vitality from the atmosphere of tradition. For
the conservative, tradition is the guide to political decision, and
political life decays
if
it is not nourished by tradition. The con–
servative also identifies morality with tradition. Thus both Burke
and Hegel warned of the impossibility of reaching an individual
morality or standard of conduct.
As
Hegel put it, "In regard to
morality the saying of the wisest men of antiquity is the only true
one-to be moral is to live in accordance with the moral traditions
of one's country." But to construct moral and political life on tra–
dition, Plato argued, meant building on shifting sands. In the
Phaedrus
he told us that the man who is impelled by tradition, pro–
ceeding by habit and routine, is blind. Tradition cannot guide him
for it is blind itself, without a guiding principle, following impulses
neither justified nor understood. Thus the blindness of tradition
would be an impasse to the conservative if he had not invented a deus
ex machina to deliver
him
from it. This device is teleology; he has
given tradition direction from the highest source, namely Providence.
Together with his belief that the guiding hand of Providence
ultimately controls political life, the conservative holds the belief that
piety and veneration constitute the cornerstone of society.
As
Mr.
Kirk asserts, religious sanction is "the indispensable basis of any
conservative order." Mr. Viereck, too, makes it clear that a con–
servative outlook must
be
associated with religion.
2
But, we must ask,
what kind of religion? The conservative answer leads us to suspect
that it is the religion of the Roman pantheon.
Burke saw society as an immortal being, Mr. Kirk tells us, and
believed that social disposition has a divine origin. Every state, Burke
proclaimed, is the creation of Providence. Now this may be piety, but
it is questionable whether it is religion. Mr. Kirk's assertion that
"Christian orthodoxy is the kernel of Burke's philosophy," is hardly
accurate. The further assertion that Burke's erudition supported "the
verdict of the Christian fathers," would have surprised Tertullian and
Augustine. It must not be forgotten that during the reign of the
Emperor Domitian, the Christians called the state the beast from
the abyss, and that a century later Celsus attacked the Christians be–
cause they were not loyal citizens and because they felt they belonged
2
Conservatism Revisited: the Revolt Against Revolt,
p.
26.
