'The word "nature" is encountered everywhere,' notably in the writing and talk of poets, scientists, ecologists and even politicians. 'But though they frequently employ the word, they seem not to have much considered what notion ought to be framed of the thing, which they suppose and admire, and upon occasion celebrate, but do not call in question or discuss.' Thus Robert Boyle, progenitor of English science, in A Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature, 1686.

LRB 10 May 2007 | PDF Download