In “Natural History,” Ashton Nichols traces the development of natural history in literature and scientific writing from the ancient works of Pliny the Elder and Aristotle to the later ideas of Buffon, Humboldt, and Darwin. Nichols examines how eighteenth-century colonial expansion influenced the spread of ideas about nature as well as how new ideas of nature were represented by Romantic authors like Mary Shelley. Culminating in analysis of the works of Erasmus Darwin and his grandson Charles Darwin, the chapter explores the paradigm shift away from a static and unchanging nature and toward a more modern understanding of nature as dynamic, interconnected, and indifferent to human needs and desires.