EDMUND BURKE
There is nothing unusual in Burke's early life. He was born in Dublin, Ireland,
in 1729. His father was a successful lawyer and a Protestant, his mother, a
Catholic. At the age of twelve, he became a pupil of Abraham Shackleton, a
Quaker, who had been teaching some fifteen years at Ballitore, a small town
thirty miles from Dublin. In after years Burke was always pleased to speak of
his old friend in the kindest way: "If I am anything," he declares, "it is the
education I had there that has made me so." And again at Shackleton's death,
when Burke was near the zenith of his fame and popularity, he writes: "I had a
true honor and affection for that excellent man. I feel something like a
satisfaction in the midst of my concern, that I was fortunate enough to have him
under my roof before his departure." It can hardly be doubted that the old
Quaker schoolmaster succeeded with his pupil who was already so favorably
inclined, and it is more than probable that the daily example of one who lived
out his precepts was strong in its influence upon a young and generous mind.
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