The doctrine of prescription might be admirable if all statesmen were so wise as Burke; but in the hands of lesser men it becomes no more than the protective armour of vested interests into the ethics of which it refuses us leave to examine.
That suspicion of thought is integral to Burke's philosophy, and it deserves more examination than it has received.

In part it is a rejection of the Benthamite position that man is a reasoning animal.

It puts its trust in habit as the chief source of human action; and it thus is distrustful of thought as leading into channels to which the nature of man is not adapted.

Novelty, which is assumed to be the outcome of thought, it regards as subversive of the routine upon which civilization depends.

Thought is destructive of peace; and it is argued that we know too little of political phenomena to make us venture into the untried places to which thought invites us.