Throughout history there have been contradicting views about pastoral and wilderness landscapes. Pastoral landscapes contain cities and towns where wilderness landscapes contain nature and very few people. Many notable authors have had different feelings towards pastoral and wilderness settings; Henry David Thoreau was a die hard enthusiast for the wild where the Bible prefers pastoral settings. "There for the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man."" (Genesis), the Bible holds true to the belief that wilderness is evil and hard. Adam and Eve first lived in a garden (pastoral area) where life was easy and virtually free of thought or problem. After the original sin was committed the Lord God cast them out of the Garden of Eden and into the wilderness, where the "savage- beasts lay. This is a perfect example of the view of wilderness by the general public and the authors of the Bible prior to the mid nineteen hundreds. As punishment Adam and Eve were cast away from the ideal living conditions of the pastoral garden and forced to live in the untamed wilderness. .
Another example of how society throughout time has viewed the wild in a negative light, comes from J. Hector St. John de Cre've Coeur, author of Letters from an American Farmer. He holds similar ideas about the wilderness as the Bible. .
"Now we arrive near the great woods, near the last inhabited distracts; there men seem to be placed still farther beyond the reach of government, which in some measure leaves them to themselves. How can it pervade every corner; as they were driven there by misfortunes, necessity of beginnings, desire of acquiring large tracts of land, idleness, frequent want of economy, ancient debts; the reunion of suck peoples dose not afford a very pleasuring spectacle. There men appear to be no better than carnivorous animals of a superior rank, living on the flesh of wild animals when they can catch them, and when they are not able, they subsist on grain- (Cre've Coeur).
