Culture on nature
That nature writing is seri ous business, representing a delicate combination of art and science, imagination and accurate information, empa thy and deliber ate detachment, is evident from the book. The history of nature writing, as the editor introduces it, is in more ways than one a history of humanity, "part of the quest for the essential characteristics and boundaries of being human.'
The book traces the chronological evo lution of human obser- vations and ideas on nature. The fables and exaggerations that marked the dark ages before the renaissance were followed by inspired observations committed to understanding the divine works of god. This phase of nature writing was one in which humans remained the enchanted observers and gave commentaries on the works of "the wise author of nature'. The meticulous observations of this period led to a definite reconfiguration of power, bringing the Church "firmly on the side of scientific advance'. What Anton van Leeuwenhoek, William Derham and Gilbert White accomplished for scientific detail and inquiry was ardently matched by the romantic tradition that followed.
The chapter on the romantics speaks of the shameless eurocentrism manifest in nature writing during the post-economic botany phase which plundered the wondrous bounty of the South. This was gradually replaced by refreshing concepts of the Earth as an organic whole and the oneness of being. Paralleling this is the celebration of weeds, of the commonplace and untamed in nature, the rediscovery of Darwinism.
The new naturalists and modern philosophical biologists celebrate not just the otherness of nature but express concern and shock at the insidious human intervention which nature is subjected to. Evident in some of the awe-inspiring yet minute details of the natural world is its vulnerability. There is a self effacing
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