Industrial production defi ned the social, economic, and political order of the western world in the 19th century. The
unquestioned belief in technology prompted a backlash: Romanticism became the antidote to the ills of mechanized
society. For the middle class, emotion triumphed over reason, imagination was prized more than cultivated scholarship, and nature was elevated as the source of inspiration. Society believed sensitivity to natural phenomena and
appreciation of natural beauty to be morally and spiritually uplifting