ABSTRACT
Anna Letitia Barbauld's writings suggest an ecological sensibility that depicts human selves and nonhuman selves co-existing within an interconnected whole, with each having intrinsic value in its own right. "The Hill of Science: A Vision" situates Barbauld's notion of an interconnected community and encapsulates the philosophical underpinnings of her Romantic ecology. In this short essay, Barbauld fictionalizes an anti-social, monological quest for knowledge that operates at the exclusion of virtue, a virtue that depends not on reason or truth in the highest sense but on an ecology of community, culture, and nature. Barbauld distinctly encodes the illumination of Virtue as feminine and the pursuit of Genius as masculine. As the caterpillar allows her to feel his "individual existence", the speaker empirically experiences the common substance of life, while she intuits a "fellowship of sense" that extends beyond the actual moment. Attention to the minute details and individual existence of every creature brings one to a greater sense of community and contentment.
