ABSTRACT

A new awareness of nature began evolving in the mid-eighteenth century, becoming widespread in the nineteenth. This awareness was facilitated by a variety of factors, especially religion and science, but also industrialization, tourism, urbanization, and war. Enlightenment emphasis on empirical observation and rational analysis gave nature new significance,and the urge to understand it excited a broadening public, as evidenced by Wright of Derby’s Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (Figure 1.8). Enlightenment empiricism applied to religion led many to abandon superstition and faith, seeking instead rational explanations for metaphysical questions. This occurred predominantly in Protestant regions, since Anglican and especially Lutheran belief predisposed individuals to doubt authority and question dogma. One result of this was pantheism, a belief that God and nature are identical.