‘Peace with the Earth is the First Peace’. Henry Beston, Nature, the Earth, and Economy

Through the observation of Nature, its laws, its ordered rhythms (motions of the Universe, cycle of seasons, life of animals and plants) the American writer Henry Beston learns a universal lesson about the right/fair relationship between man and Nature, characterized by a deep respect for the Earth and all living beings. In Northern Farm (1948) he expresses his philosophical, ethical, and spiritual vision about a simple form of “natural economy” (and “ecology”) closely connected to Tradition and agriculture, which places him quite close to the socio-political, ethic-philosophical, and cultural ideas and ideals of the Southern Agrarians as voiced by the “Twelve Southerners” in the famous book-manifesto _I’ll Take my Stand_ (1930).