Conversations about Nature and Sociability

Reading the Conversations, I thought about the relationship between natural science and theories of sociability in Darwin and Smith. In The Economy of Vegetation, the god of Love is the prime mover that facilitates all natural and meteorological processes—the idea of “love” or “affinity” governing the movements of nature suggests that these processes have a transactional, reciprocal nature. Adam Smith expresses concern over the possibility of equity and reciprocity in economic and social interactions in Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments. The scholarly introductions to the Charlotte Smith volumes discuss how she incorporates subversive politics and progressive social attitudes into all of her work, including her sonnets and children’s poetry. It is true that the conversations between Mrs. Talbot, George, and Emily do concern themselves with sociability, with Scamperville standing in as a sadistic villain. However, the poems themselves do not present nature as possessing a social dimension; while individual animals and plants, such as the hedgehog, are presented in a sentimentalized way in order to stir the reader’s sympathy, they are depicted as being very alone. The snail is self-sufficient, and hides in his own shell. The lady-bird is separated from her children. Instead of presenting a comprehensive world system tied together by the bonds of Love, nature appears in Charlotte Smith’s poetry as fragmented and solitary. I wonder about the significance of this broken sociability in light of Smith’s progressive politics, as presented more explicitly in her novelistic prose, and as it appears to preoccupy her critics.