Krutch extolled Nature but eschewed oversentimentalization. Nature could be hostile as well as friendly. She is cruel to the rabbit put into the mouth of a fox but kind to the fox s cubs to whom she has given a dinner. The odor which clings to these scientists is too seldom that of the open air, too often that biologists odor of sanctity, formaldehyde. They are older than man, and they have their source in the natural part of him.
Art becomes sterile and the joy of life withers when they become unnatural.
Man regained gladness by seeing himself as a child of Nature, rather than a child of a supernatural God. It puts our ultimate trust, not in human intelligence, but in whatever it is that created human intelligence, and is, in the long run, more likely than we to solve our problems. To have faith in wildness. To place our ultimate trust in Nature. These beliefs form the bedrock of Pantheism.