ABSTRACT
For centuries Western intellectual traditions have meditated upon both the differences and similarities between the kinds of making undertaken by people, nature and God, respectively. Mary Shelley's work shows that the distinction was important, not just at an intellectual level, but because it touched the nature of personal identity and cosmic meaning. The universe was divided into matter and nature; and matter into living and inert; living things were of two kinds – animals and plants. In theory God could have created everything directly – that is his prerogative – but evidence in nature indicated that direct creations have not occurred. Nature can neither create nor destroy matter, only modify it continually. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck then shifted key to take up one of his favourite themes, the moral importance of the study of nature, including man. Lamarck thought of the negative side of human beings as the product of society rather than of nature.
