But nature does not err; she is still the only one to teach us what is right.
Men who no longer listen to the voice of nature become the victims of a thousand different diseases and miseries. But the creatures of pure nature, on the other hand, the animals of our forests, are free from sickness and from everything else as well that corresponds to the sins and vices of mankind.
". . . Every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile."
—Heber.
To-day, indeed, there is not a spot left where man has not interfered with nature[1] for the worse. Therefore we may find even in free nature, in the forest among plants and animals, single instances of taint and disease, but these are still so rare, compared with the infinite sufferings and the great misery of mankind that the words of the poet quoted above still hold good.
The creatures of nature are, indeed, free from disease. But they also fall easy victims to it as soon as they are withdrawn from unmolested nature, and no longer stand in the relation to light
- ↑ Man in his misguidance has powerfully interfered with nature. He has devastated the forests, and thereby even changed the atmospheric conditions and the climate. Some species of plants and animals have become entirely extinct through man, although they were essential in the economy of nature. Everywhere the purity of the air is affected by smoke and the like, and the rivers are defiled. These and other things are serious encroachments upon nature, which men nowadays entirely overlook, but which are of the greatest importance, and at once show their evil effect not only upon plants but upon animals as well, the latter not having the endurance and power of resistance of man. To him who cannot see the defects caused by man himself, and who doubts the absolute perfection of nature, one is tempted to say:
