"Nature" hasn't alwasy meant the same thing. During the Age of Reason, "nature" wasn't "not urban" or "not mechanical" or however the term is used today. In addition, that whole "pristine untouched" schtick was an invention of the Romantic Era. In the Enlightenment, "nature" was this "other" that had to be studied and tamed. It was the "nature" of the unpredictable and destructive storm, the "nature" of the barbarians who killed all before them and stole whatever was shiny. The "nature" of the formative years of Freemasonry was not a "balance of nature", it was a constant turmoil, it was Scylla and Charybdis, it was the raving monster within each man that had to be tamed, balanced, and brought into humanity by Law and Reason. In the Enlightenment mind, the "natural man" would devour everything before him and lay it to waste. Thus, one learned to measure and circumscribe the "natural man", knock off the rough portions...