Nature & Animals Quote by William Cavendish

Cavendish’s line is a masterclass in authority that pretends to be humility. On the surface, it’s horsemanship advice: don’t force a horse into movements its body and mind resist. Underneath, it’s a governing philosophy from a 17th-century aristocrat who lived through civil war, exile, and the brittle reality that power breaks when it ignores what it rules.

The phrase “in all Airs” matters. The airs were stylized, elite maneuvers of classical dressage - high, controlled displays of training that functioned as spectacle and status. Cavendish is telling you that even in the most “artful” performance, the real work is reading temperament: “strength, spirit, and disposition.” He refuses the fantasy of domination-as-skill. The rider’s job isn’t to overwrite the animal’s nature but to choreograph it.

That’s where the subtext bites: “art is but to set nature in order.” It’s a conservative definition of mastery. Art isn’t invention; it’s arrangement. It flatters the trainer (or the ruler) as someone who imposes order, but it also limits him. Cavendish frames “nature” as the ultimate constraint, a force you negotiate with rather than defeat.

As a public servant and courtly figure, he’s also smuggling in a political analogy: effective leadership is less about coercion than about aligning policy with the grain of the people, the moment, the material. Do “nothing against nature,” and you keep control. Push past it, and you get bucked.