Nature, she felt, was evidence of the unity and goodness of created things. The knowledge of nature was the beginning of the knowledge of God. To walk in nature was to walk in God’s creation. But Batterham felt differently: “He loved nature with a sensuous passion, and he loved birds and beasts and children because they were not men.” Nature, pure, lawful, impersonal, was a refuge from society and a reproach to humanity and its ideas, especially its ideas about God.

Interesting idea: that God created a world where the best way to get in touch with Him is to remove yourself from your conceptual frameworks of Him.