Nature
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2.The order, unity and economy of nature
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 334Fixed order and fitness to ends pervade plants, animals, man and society; disorder does not disprove the order of Nature.read · scan
2a.The cycles, compensation and balance of nature
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 133–134Rain, dew, ice, frost and the provision for lions and ravens show nature's order beyond man's command.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 46Natural cycle of Nile flood and fish reproduction.read · scan
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 60–62Nature requires compensation and a circle of generation; it would not go on one leg only.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 129Regular flowering, fruiting, and lunar and solar cycles show a unified natural order.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 325The sun imprints heavenly virtue on the world.read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33
- p. 281–283Nature recompenses the sharp cold with abundant fish, whales and other benefits.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 137Reports a supposed thirty-five-year cycle of weathers in the Low Countries, called the Prime.read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38
- p. 101–102Compares the blood's circulation with Aristotle's circular cycle of evaporation and rain in nature.read · scan
- p. 128Nature mingles thin and thick juices with warm blood so the defects of each extreme are compensated.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 331Seasons, day and night are promised to hold their course.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 26Nature has set us in the centre, balanced so that changing one side changes the other.read · scan
- p. 49Nature imitates herself: a seed brings fruit, a principle in a good mind brings fruit.read · scan
- p. 119–120Nature acts by advance and return, like the tide and the sun; continuity in anything wearies.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 253Wonder at nature's order and barriers between species, which show her intentions and preservation of order.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 172Following nature's method in the state combines conservation and improvement, mirroring the order of the worldread · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 324The universe is an ordered, unified whole, every object bound to all others by laws; an image of the Infinite Spirit, demanding thought to be understood.read · scan
Leigh Hunt, On the Realities of ImaginationVol. 27
- p. 289–290Nature's general tendency toward completeness and comfort shows morbid imaginations are not lasting.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 442–443The sun as source of life and warmth for earth and men.read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Forces of MatterVol. 30
- p. 81Gold nuggets, lead-tree and mineral veins are formed by small, perpetual voltaic actions in the earth.read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30
- p. 167The atmosphere carries away carbon and cycles it between animals and plants.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 832–833West Wind as Destroyer and Preserver, driving dead leaves and sowing seeds for spring's renewal.read · scan
John Keats, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 895–897Grasshopper in summer and cricket in winter carry earth's unceasing song.read · scan
Sir Charles Lyell, Uniformity in the Series of Past Changes in the Animate and Inanimate WorldVol. 38
- p. 406Describes natural regions of convulsion and tranquillity across the globe's surface.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 13–14Polarity or undulation in nature is the law of spirit, seen in breath, tides, day and night.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 53Nature repairs herself every hour, a model for the reformer's constant renewal.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 87Compensation appears throughout nature and in animals, where every gift is balanced by a defect.read · scan
- p. 89–90The moral law is a universal necessity in nature; the whole appears wherever a part appears.read · scan
- p. 90–91Nature reunites what we try to divide: 'Drive out nature with a fork, she comes running back.'read · scan
- p. 96–97Snow, water, wind and gravitation reveal and penalize the wrongdoer.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CharacterVol. 5
- p. 186Moral influence is likened to natural forces like gravity, light, heat and magnetism.read · scan
- p. 189In nature there are no false valuations; things act exactly according to quality and quantity, only man pretends beyond his force. Natural order contrasted with human pretension.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 229Nature is consistent and uses one stuff for all her variety, keeping her laws even when seeming to transcend them.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 275Nature has self-poise and harmony in all her works, matched by a harmony in human faculties.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 79–80Forces are so nicely balanced that the face of nature stays uniform for long periods.read · scan
- p. 103Darwin proposes a general law of nature requiring occasional crossing between individuals.read · scan
- p. 106–107Concludes occasional intercross between distinct individuals is a very general, perhaps universal, law of nature.read · scan
- p. 150Goethe's maxim that nature must economise on one side to spend on the other.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 270The mill process parallels nature, where eroded mountains leave indestructible gold behind for man to finish separating.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 993–994Leaf and flower ripen, fade and fall without toil, rooted in the soil, in contrast with man.read · scan
Hermann von Helmholtz, On the Conservation of ForceVol. 30
- p. 180Meteorological processes raise water to mountaintops, serving as natural sources of moving force.read · scan
Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical EvolutionVol. 30
- p. 337Apparent random disturbance is shown on close scrutiny to follow connected order in folded curves.read · scan
2b.Nature does nothing in vain: design and economy
See also: Animal 1d · Reasoning 5a
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 205Byproducts of natural processes adorn and please.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 128Nature is wise to have ceased making giants, taking from war its instruments, though she made elephant and whale.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 240–241God in nature disposed that the most needful things are the most plentiful.read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38
- p. 69–70Argues from natural design of valves and vessels that same structure implies same end.read · scan
- p. 70–71Asks why nature would need a second ventricle merely to nourish the lungs, appealing to economy of design.read · scan
- p. 71Nature does not use a single vessel for contrary motions and purposes.read · scan
- p. 72Nature would not choose obscure channels over open pulmonary veins.read · scan
- p. 94Nature uses the two ventricles as one in the embryo, and always does what is best, closing routes in the adult.read · scan
- p. 95Nature chose to make blood percolate the lungs rather than take a direct course in perfect animals.read · scan
- p. 98–99Nature never intended to burden the heart needlessly; valves are contrived so it does not labour in vain.read · scan
- p. 100Nature added the right ventricle to force blood through the lungs; it exists for transmission, not nutrition.read · scan
- p. 100–101Nature doing nothing in vain implies the large vessels serve a purpose.read · scan
- p. 126Attributes the separation of chyle and blood to the consummate providence of nature.read · scan
- p. 127Nature is said to have interposed the liver so that crude chyle does not oppress the vital principle at the heart.read · scan
- p. 135–136Nature, perfect and divine, does nothing in vain, giving no heart before its office is needed.read · scan
- p. 137Perfect nature does nothing in vain, so vessel structure varies with distance from the heart.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 265–266Nature does nothing in vain; no grotesques in nature; small creatures show more wisdom than great wonders.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 243Nature is called wise and frugal, and Adam questions its apparent superfluity.read · scan
- p. 249Adam wonders if Nature gave Eve too much ornament and too little inward excellence.read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32
- p. 306Teleological argument: nature fits organs to purposes, so reason would be a poor means to happiness compared with instinct.read · scan
- p. 308Nature's wisdom is preserved since reason serves the higher end of a good will.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On Poesy or ArtVol. 27
- p. 258–259Nature's wisdom has plan and execution at once, without reflex act or responsibility.read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30
- p. 144–146Atmosphere conveys bad vapors to places where they do good.read · scan
- p. 149–150Air's elasticity serves the economy of creation.read · scan
- p. 161Asks what would happen to us if all fuel burned to solid, showing fitness of carbon fuels for human use.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 171Nature insures herself against accident by scattering spores and detaching new selves so the kind is safe.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 231Nature adds a small excess of direction to every creature, a spice of fanaticism, without which there is no efficiency.read · scan
- p. 231Nature secures her ends by pleasure and deception: the child's play, appetite, profuse seeds, and lovers' happiness serve growth, life and progeny.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5
- p. 301Forms and colors of Nature carry no mere ornament but signs of health and excellent action; in plants like virtues follow like forms.read · scan
- p. 307–308Every natural feature speaks of the central benefit which is the soul of Nature and is thereby beautiful.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 389–390Nature makes nothing in vain; even superfluous self-regard serves a purpose.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 71Beautiful co-adaptations seen everywhere in the organic world, as in woodpecker and mistletoe.read · scan
- p. 139Innumerable coadaptations of structure are seen throughout nature.read · scan
- p. 203Natural selection yields only relative, not absolute, perfection in nature; imperfections like the eye and bee sting, nature 'accumulating contradictions' against pre-existing harmony.read · scan
- p. 204–205Bee sting, drones, queen-bee hatred, and wasteful pollen show nature's imperfect contrivances explained by inexorable natural selection serving community good.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 90–91Remarks on the 'beautiful provisions of nature' adapting the Mylodon's tongue and body to its food.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1045–1047The shell's frailty withstands seas that snap ships, an example of design in nature.read · scan
2c.The interdependence of living things and the struggle in nature
See also: Animal 5c
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 272Springs, mountains, trees, sea and seasons portrayed as ordered providing for beasts and men.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 329She describes the sea-people walking and seeing beneath the sea with open eyes, the sea holding far more than the land.read · scan
- p. 337The sea-people, reared in the sea, find the land disagreeable and must return to it.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33
- p. 344Abundant fowl, huge fish and thousands of lagartos, one of which devours a swimming negro, show nature's plenty and danger.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 227Teeming sea, air and land fill with creatures in their kinds.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 366–368Earth, plants, sea, sun and stars all drink; nothing in Nature is sober, so why should man abstain.read · scan
James Hogg, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 763Wild and tame beasts gather peacefully around Kilmeny; nature harmonized in a sinless Eve-like world.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 550–552Vines and bindweed entwine in the overgrown vineyard, likened to weak persons supporting one another; nature reclaims Renzo's garden and house.read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30
- p. 143–144Nitrogen carries candle fumes to vegetation; the atmosphere serves life's economy.read · scan
- p. 168All nature is tied together by laws making each part serve another; animals and plants depend on each other's exhalations.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 253–254Reformers protest nature's advances, wanting pure wheat and defending animals and insects against man's tyranny.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5
- p. 297The bird lies in its relations to Nature, not in ounces and inches; man will take Nature along with him.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 238–239Describes the beautiful undersea world with its plants, fishes and coral castle.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 24Compares the nature of the organism with the nature of external conditions as determinants of variation.read · scan
- p. 65Competition and diverse physical conditions among organic beings shape variation.read · scan
- p. 72–73Nature's bright face hides constant destruction; birds singing live by destroying life.read · scan
- p. 75–76Lighten any check and species numbers rise; heavy destruction falls on young or old.read · scan
- p. 78–79Explains rare plants abundant in few spots and social plants by conditions of life and enemies.read · scan
- p. 82Nature's order shown in forest regrowth and the war among insects, animals and plants.read · scan
- p. 85Competition ceases only at the extreme confines of life, in arctic or desert regions.read · scan
- p. 89Natural selection operates within the economy of nature as climate changes; inhabitants interdependent, places in nature's economy filled by modified, better adapted forms.read · scan
- p. 89Changed conditions favor variation; natural selection improves inhabitants struggling in balance; no country's natives perfectly adapted, as naturalised foreigners conquer them.read · scan
- p. 117–118Nature follows a simultaneous rotation of plants, like farmers' crop rotation.read · scan
- p. 118–119Speaks of the general economy of a land, with organisms filling differing places in nature.read · scan
- p. 128Uses the polity of Nature as organisms seize new places.read · scan
- p. 143–144Species in a state of nature are limited in range by competition as much as by climate adaptation.read · scan
- p. 171Organic beings are interrelated by predation and competition in the natural economy, beyond climate alone.read · scan
- p. 202–203Natural selection acts only for each being's own good, never solely for another species; nature shows structures for injury of others but none harmful to possessor.read · scan
- p. 209Darwin defends natural selection against objections: organisms are adapted to changing conditions, not perfect; a natural process shapes longevity. Nature as selective process, only incidentally.read · scan
- p. 239Orchid pollination by insects and the structure of flowers described.read · scan
- p. 283–284Sees instincts as consequences of one general law: multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.read · scan
- p. 300–302Organisms removed from their natural conditions suffer reproductive disturbance.read · scan
- p. 310Wild organisms taken from natural conditions into captivity are rendered sterile.read · scan
- p. 423–425The colonization principle is said to apply universally throughout nature, on every mountain summit, lake and marsh.read · scan
- p. 506Contemplates a tangled bank of interdependent plants, birds, insects and worms produced by laws acting around us; finds grandeur in this view.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 73Concludes every part of the world is habitable, from brine lakes to ocean depths and snow.read · scan
- p. 103–104Animals adapt to arid surroundings, absorbing dew through the skin, and mottled coloring conceals the lizard from enemies.read · scan
- p. 125Introduced plants cover square miles, making land impenetrable and displacing native herbage.read · scan
- p. 128Thistle beds transform the plain, pleasing like broken forest land, and shelter few animals.read · scan
- p. 153Vast beds of thistle and cardoon overwhelm the land, closing roads and pasture; picturesque river landscape.read · scan
- p. 166–167Wonders how the ocean's food chain is sustained, puzzled about what albatross and infusoria subsist on.read · scan
- p. 203Nature appears wilfully cruel in animals playing with their prey.read · scan
- p. 243–244Describes the giant kelp, its growth on rocks, and its power to break waves and protect harbours.read · scan
- p. 244Shows interdependence in nature: destruction of kelp would cascade through the whole community of life.read · scan
- p. 466Admires the picturesque tropical scenery of white sand and coconut groves, and adaptation between crab and tree.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1018–1019Nature is one with rapine; the wood is a world of plunder and prey, which no preacher can heal.read · scan
2d.Nature makes no leaps; change and metamorphosis
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 282–283Marvels of the island are described, including ambergris formed by monsters of the deep and melting in the sun.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 311–313Variety of nature is not disparaged by similitude of creatures.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 49–50Nature diversifies and imitates; art imitates and diversifies; nature endlessly repeats years, days, hours.read · scan
- p. 165A rock changes the whole sea; even things made to serve us, like walls and stairs, can kill us.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 75Vegetable creation shows infinite variety of forms with no assignable proportion.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 301–302Revolutionaries defy the process of nature in their violent haste.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 290Nature shows exuberant surplus, as in the tree, a prelude to limitless free play beyond necessity.read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Forces of MatterVol. 30
- p. 38Faraday marvels that sea, rivers and icebergs are one body in differing states of cohesion.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 88–89Naturalist sees one type under every metamorphosis; horse as running man, fish as swimming man.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 171Nature is self-regulated motion or change, baptizing herself through metamorphosis; naming is a second nature grown from the first.read · scan
- p. 173Abandonment to nature opens new passages into things and makes metamorphosis possible.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 227–228Distinguishes passive nature from Efficient Nature, the quick cause working through gradual transformation without violence.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 338–339Nature works over immense periods; melioration of fruits and animal stocks shows her power.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1255–1257The pine sings nature's hidden music, the genesis of things and endless metamorphosis of solid nature into formsread · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 192Denies nature's diversity is mere variety like toys in a shop; treats it as a common rule of nature.read · scan
- p. 195–196Cites the canon 'Natura non facit saltum': nature is prodigal in variety, niggard in innovation.read · scan
- p. 207Natural selection makes 'Natura non facit saltum' strictly true when past forms are included.read · scan
- p. 322Describes natural processes of cliff degradation, weathering and river transport shaping the land.read · scan
- p. 488–489Nature is prodigal in variety yet niggard in innovation; 'Natura non facit saltum' is intelligible on this theory.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 207Nature herself may perform bisection of an individual, analogous to division in compound animals.read · scan
- p. 355–356Fossil trees perfectly silicified and preserved, admired for their structure.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 998–1000Nature devises long and matures the individual form.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, Abraham LincolnVol. 28
- p. 445All natural forces serve the germ in fulfilling its destiny.read · scan
2e.The chain and gradation of beings
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 237–238Men eat dangerous fruits as if nature had ordained all things for the belly.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 180Scale of nature from centre to circumference by which men ascend to God.read · scan
- p. 204God and Nature bid the same in ordaining service to the worthiestread · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 393Natural order shows gradation of ranks in creatures.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 415–422A chain of love and mutual dependence binds all beings; nothing stands alone and parts relate to the whole.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 186–187Levelling perverts the natural order of society, an usurpation on the prerogatives of nature.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 101The order of nature is growth; the tragedy of nature seems to be the distinction of More and Less.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 172Nature aims at ascension of the soul into higher forms; birds' pairing is an idyl, tempest an ode, summer an epic.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 152–153Beings low in the scale of nature are more variable than higher ones.read · scan
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