What do I mean… by the healing power of nature?
I mean to refer to the way in which Nature ministers to our minds,
all more or less diseased by the rush and racket of civilization,
and helps to steady and enrich our lives.
My first point is that there are deeply-rooted,
old established, far-reaching relations
between Man and Nature
which we cannot ignore without loss…
there would be less ‘psychopathology of everyday life’
if we kept up our acquaintance…
we have put ourselves beyond
a very potent vis medicatrix
if we cease to be able to wonder
at the grandeur of the star-strewn sky,
the mystery of the mountains,
the sea eternally new,
the way of the eagle in the air,
the meanest flower that blows,
the look in a dog’s eye.
Professor J. Arthur Thomson, “Vis Medicatrix Naturae,”
keynote address at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, 1914.
Found in Your Brain On Nature: The Science of Nature’s Influence
on Your Health, Happiness, and Vitality
by Eva M.Selhub, MD and Alan C. Logan, ND.
on Your Health, Happiness, and Vitality
by Eva M.Selhub, MD and Alan C. Logan, ND.
Available through the South Shore Regional Library.