Bacon completed the stepmother transformation by urging miners to pry nature’s secrets

Evidence

In the seventeenth century, the image will be seen to undergo yet another transformation, as natural philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626) sets forth the need for prying into nature’s nooks and crannies in searching out her secrets for human improvement. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 206

Categorization

• XREF: Merchant sets up the direct lineage from the Saxony miner’s stepmother defense to Bacon — exactly the causal story this book exists to tell for the ecofeminist strand. — connects to: Bacon welded natural magic, mining, and patriarchy into an ethic of nature exploitation. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 656; Bacon promised that mechanical arts would conquer and subdue nature — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 683

Broader Connections

• Bacon welded natural magic, mining, and patriarchy into an ethic of nature exploitation. #corroborates (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 656
• Bacon promised that mechanical arts would conquer and subdue nature #corroborates (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 683