Abstract
THIS volume, containing some fourteen essays, has been written by lovers of the country, its agriculture, rural tradition, and way of life. No doubt it will be read with pleasure and approbation by those of kindred mind: it should be read seriously by a much wider section of the community, in particular by those who, by political action, mould the national way of life. It may be argued, of course, that there is a sense in which everything that man does is part of the natural order. But the meaning intended is made quite clear in the introduction and in the integrated series of essays presented. The basic plea is for a return to good husbandry, for a personal understanding of the land, and a knowledge of how it should be used so that its fertility may be conserved and used to best advantage; it is a plea for good work performed for its own sake and because it is part of a good way of life; it is a plea for the retention of a civilization that is rapidly being submerged in the modern mechanized, urbanized development; above all, it is a plea for the fair treatment of the land (and those who work on it) on which so much that is good in our national life depends. The theme is fully explored in essays contributed by authors each with particular experience of his own subject. Here and there, no doubt, there are evident overstatements, and occasional pseudo-scientific assertions which would have been better omitted. But these can well be overlooked in a book that is so unmistakably sincere. More is the pity that so much that could be ideal in life is unlikely to be realized.
The Natural Order. Essays in the Return to Husbandry
Edmund Blunden H. J. Massingham B. D. Knowles Philip Mairet Philip Oyler L. F. Easterbrook C. Howard Jones J. E. Hosking Lord Northbourne Michael Graham Rolf Gardiner Adrian Bell C. Henry Warren, the Earl of Portsmouth. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by H. J. Massingham. Pp. vi + 178. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1945.) 7s. 6d. net.
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The Natural Order. Nature 155, 710 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155710b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155710b0