‘The Supernatural in All Natural Things’

Abstract

We can explore Hudson’s understanding of nature and existence further by looking at the emotional nature of his writing, and the way this is linked with his idea of a poetic understanding or presentation of things. Of course, in considering his concern or reverence for things, we have already glimpsed one side of this, which we might extend to speak of as a love or passion. Edward Thomas writes perceptively of Hudson: ‘In Mr. Hudson curiosity is a passion, or, rather, it is part of the greater passion of love. He loves what things are. That is to say, he loves life, not merely portions selected and detached by past generations of writers.’³¹ Hudson himself characterised his nature writings in terms of ‘a more poetic and emotional treatment’ of nature (than would be found in other naturalists, for example Gilbert White).³² He writes:

We are bound as much as ever to facts; we seek for them more and more diligently, knowing that to break from them is to be carried away by vain imaginations. All the same, facts in themselves are nothing to us: they are important only in their relations to other facts and things — to all things, and the essence of things, material and spiritual. We are not like children gathering painted shells and pebbles on a beach; but, whether we know it or not, are seeking after something beyond and above knowledge. The wilderness in which we are sojourners is not our home; it is enough that its herbs and roots and wild fruits nourish and give us strength to go onward.