Response to the Story by Mary Beagan - Essay Example

On page 21 under passage 4.2 “My subject is nature, that is, life: Unity and Totality in Nature”, here, Beagan is talking about nature with specifications to plants and animals and how they interrelate. This is where Pliny gives a statement of intent that indicates the vision of nature developed in the 37 books. Pliny does not do a scientific entity, but on the contrary, he focuses on human life and how human interacts with nature, hence, natural history. The author states how the HN’s books based on plants are not just classification lists of species but rather focused on the usefulness of plants to the human race in areas such as horticulture, medicine, and agriculture. Here, minerals are also described and this implies the history of human art where minerals were used for painting, architecture, and sculpture.

The discussion in this passage reflects a lot on the state of knowledge or science in the early Roman period. Knowledge reflects how people were able to discover the usefulness of plant minerals in their day-to-day lives including in their architectural works, sculptures as well as paintings. The fact that plant minerals could be used in other areas that were not very obvious, is a significant sign of knowledgeable people. From the scientific view, it is evident that the early Romans were already thinking about how useful plants can be to a human being. This majorly shows the application of scientific thought especially in areas such as medicine, horticulture, and agriculture. In both two areas, Beagan tries to relate nature and science, knowledge, culture, and art and this comes out nicely when we consider the plants and animal relationships.