i. _Nature sometimes means the ordinary course of things apart from us
and from our intervention_; as when we say that “_Nature_ looks gay”—an
expression which we might use of fields and even of a not too artificial
garden, but not of a city or a street.
In this sense it may be occasionally applied to the ordinary course of
things in our own bodily frame, so far as it goes on without our
deliberate intervention; as when a physician tells a fussy patient to
cease from medicining himself and to “let _Nature_ take its course.”
ii. _Nature sometimes means the ordinary course of things in ourselves,
not in our bodies but in some other part of us, but still apart from our
deliberate intervention_; as when we say that “_Nature_ impels us to
avoid pain, to preserve our lives, to cherish our children, to love and
revere our parents, and to seek the esteem and friendship of our
neighbours.”
But sometimes in human beings one “natural” impulse is opposed by
another: as when the desire to preserve one’s life is opposed by the
desire to gain the esteem of one’s neighbours. When these two conflict,
which is to be called the more “natural”?
The answer will be different, according as we use the word “natural” in
the sense of “ordinary” or “orderly.” One class of natural impulses,
which may be called selfish or self-regarding, is perhaps more
_ordinarily_ predominant; another class, those which regard the good of
others, contributes more to the progress and _order_ of society. In the
individual, as well as in society, the former or “ordinary” impulses, if
unchecked, often tend to excess of passion, and what we call mental
“disorder”; the latter (which are seldom in excess) tend to self-control
and a well-ordered mind. In the former sense, it is more “natural,”
because more “ordinary,” to laugh when we are tickled, or to seize food
when we are hungry, than to die for our country or to provide food for
our children; but, in the latter sense, the nobler actions are more
“natural” because more in accordance with order.
What do we mean by a well-ordered mind? We mean one in which the Will
does not at once yield to the impulses from the things which seem
nearest to ourselves; in which the Imagination vividly presents to us
the wants of our neighbours as well as our own; in which the Reason
states what can be said for and against each proposal, and the
Conscience finally decides the course to be taken. Here then we see an
entirely new notion of Nature, at least so far as man is concerned; a
course or order of things no longer apart from human intervention, but
entirely dependent upon the supremacy of the Will and Conscience aided
by Reason and Imagination: and hence we are led to a double definition
of human Nature as follows:—
iii. _Human Nature means, sometimes the ordinary, sometimes the orderly,
course of human things._
Even as to non-human Nature we sometimes find a popular tendency to
call, or think “unnatural,” some phenomena which strike us as being
contrary to the general order and beneficence of things: and hence we
are less fond of saying that Nature prompts the cat to torture the mouse
or the moth to fly into the flame, than that she implants in the animal
race the parental instinct to protect the young. I confess I sympathize
with this tendency, and with all those who in their hearts look upon
death and pain as being contrary to the ideal order of things and
ultimately destined to be destroyed. But for the present, apart from
sentiment, let us simply note the fact that in our popular language we
sometimes say that it is the nature of a clock to indicate the right
time, but sometimes that it is its nature to deviate from the right
time: whence we deduce the conclusion that:—
iv. _The Nature of a thing means sometimes its object, sometimes its
custom._