Nature and thought : an introduction to a natural philosophy / by St. George Mivart.

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nature and thought : an introduction to a natural philosophy / by St. George Mivart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    'goodness' as conducive to an end beyond itself; the conservation of the world's vigorous life, and the intellectual and aesthetic development of its noblest denizen—man. Truth also is a correspondence between thought and things external. If therefore we may conceive what, for lack of a better name, we may call intelligent intention as underlying nature, then each such harmonious assemblage may, as ac- curately corresponding with such intention, be called ' true.' As contrasting with the beauty of these natural harmonies, much of man's handiwork is hateful to the naturalist, as marring nature's handiwork. Let a new land be discovered with a peculiar fauna and flora full of scientific interest, and straightway the Euro- pean purposely introduces his thistles, his sparrows, his rabbits or his goats, and the harmonious balance which has resulted from the organic interplay of ages is at once destroyed. Downright evil is often the result. Forests are recklessly felled, and arid, rainless wastes or dismal, fever-laden swamps ensue. H ow has not the south of Europe been devastated by the axe ! When the woods are left, their birds are killed and destructive insect-swarms are the conse- quence. Apart, however, from the blame justly due to such actions, the feeling sometimes thus enter- tained against human action generally, is an exag- gerated sentiment due to blindness to a still higher harmony. The ancients had no such feeling and viewed with unmixed pleasure the action of man upon the world about him. Indeed man forms, in one sense, a part of nature, and his works, when not in themselves inharmonious, should blend with their
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