Abstract: Caught in the differences and debates between biology and philosophy or Darwin and Mill that influenced him so greatly, Hardy was ambivalent about the relation between nature and culture, instinct and reason, body and intellect. Darwin put nature and biology above culture and education, regarding culture as biological and nature the source of values and morality. Mill advocated self-government and repulsion of the body and instinct, claiming what was obtained through culture to be natural. Moved and confused, Hardy eventually affirms that instinct overwhelms intellect, that nature is the source of value, that the tree of knowledge produces pain and that thought is a disease of flesh, declaring the ultimate failure of human civilization represented by culture and science.