Nature, Nation, and Denomination: Barbauld's Taste for the Public

The poet, essayist, political pamphleteer, and children's author Anna Laetitia Barbauld wrote against the notion of a purely Anglican worshipping and reading public, repeatedly bringing Dissent back into narratives of Protestant nationhood and civilization. In this article, I set Barbauld's educational writings in the context of her hopes for an inclusive understanding of the Protestant nation, and consider the ambitions—and to orthodox Anglicans, the dangers—of her attempts to cultivate a national taste for faith and nature through literature. In doing so, I also discuss related texts by authors such as John Aikin, Thomas Percival, William Enfield, and Sarah Trimmer.