Human Nature In The 19th Century

What is Nature? Nature is the world in its original, unmolested form: including both the natural world and human nature. In the 18th century, nature was generally thought of as a dangerous and a bad thing by politicians and philosophers. To them, the natural world was dangerous, human nature was innately bad, and that man and nature should stay separate (man in society and away from the natural world). This was the view of Thomas Hobbes: that human nature is innately bad and needs to be controlled by society. But starting in the early 19th century, American’s attitude towards both the natural world and human nature changed a great deal. In the early 19th century, the view of the natural world changed from something to be feared to something

In the 18th century, it was thought that one should suppress his or her own and other’s human nature. This suppression came in the form of society or government. Americans thought a government was necessary because human nature would otherwise run rampant and cause

In the 18th century it was commonplace to see the natural world associated with human emotions. Throughout literature and art, Americans labeled the natural world with human descriptions or accused nature of acting in a malicious or kind way. This can be seen in a letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, “I feel a gaieti de Coeur to which before I was a stranger. I think the Sun looks brighter, the Birds sing more melodiously, and Nature puts on a more cheerful countenance. We feel a temporary peace, and the poor fugitives are returning to their deserted habitations” (Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, p.117). Abigail Adams assigned nature some human traits and acting as if nature acts towards man. In the early 19th century, this type of personification was abandoned completely in place of a much more deliberate view of nature. Nature did not act upon man, nor did nature ever change its facade. How nature appears to man is completely dependent on the viewer's attitude, “The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other....In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows” (Nature, 248). To someone who truly understands and sees nature, it should only supply a feeling of delight. Nature does not have emotions or malicious intentions, if nature appears so, it is