Author

Thomas Browne(1605–1682)

Thomas Browne is documented in Fuller’s books, journals, and reading notebooks (1834). 2 distinct works are named, most often in Notebook: Sir Thomas Browne, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.

Engagement: ExcerptedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in: Books · Journals · Notebooks
Documented: 1834

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Thomas Browne’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

undatedReligio MediciDemonstrated
“A noble and accomplished man, of a later day, has said, "To credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith, but persuasion...”
Life Without and Life Within (essays)
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re633 (B-1 Life Without and Life Within (essays), B-1-33; tier B; same passage) — counted once here. Substantial multi-sentence prose quotation from Religio Medici (~7-line span).

In Fuller’s words

“Their iterated clamations to excitate their dying or dead friends or revoke them unto life again … That they sucked in the last breath of their expiring friends was surely a practice of no medical institution, but a loose opinion that the soul passed out that way and a fondness of affection from some Pythagorical foundation that the spirit of one body passed into another which they wished might be their own. [heading at close:] Urn Burial.”

Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial · Notebook: Sir Thomas Browne

When Fuller engaged with Thomas Browne

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed1record

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Browne in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1834—

Journal 1833–1834

p57

quoted · read

“Another noble and accomplished man of a later day has said "To credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith but persuasion.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1833–1834." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (4); Box 5 (83).

Inferred I bless myself and am thankful that I lived not in the age of miracles...’ is from Religio Medici, Part I, Section IX (1642/43); author is not named by Fuller but the passage is verbatim Browne. Author identified through unique phrasing. The passage is a close quotation from Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part I, Section IX: ‘I desire to exercise my faith in the difficultest point, for to credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith, but perswasion.

Author identified through unique phrasing.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Notebook: Sir Thomas Browne

pp. 3–55

excerpted · quoted · read2 selected passagesManuscript page

“I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of opinion … … 'Religio Medici.' [explicit title on p. 55]”

Inferred The work is identified by its full title 'Religio Medici.' on p. 55 (LII–LIII).

The bulk of the notebook (pp. 3–55, pages I–LIII) consists of extensive excerpts from Religio Medici, organised across more than fifty notebook pages. The first pirated edition appeared 1642; Browne's authorized edition 1643. The excerpts span both Part I (on faith, reason, and philosophy) and Part II (on charity, friendship, and happiness), including the night-prayer poem ('The night is come, like to the day', pp. 58–60), which is embedded in Religio Medici Part II and is also attributed 'From Sir T. Browne on early death' in the notebook heading (p. 58/LVI–LX). The early-death sections on pp. 58–64 derive from Religio Medici Part II, section 11 ('Of death').

“Their iterated clamations to excitate their dying or dead friends or revoke them unto life again … That they sucked in the last breath of their expiring friends was surely a practice of no medical institution, but a loose opinion that the soul passed out that way and a fondness of affection from some Pythagorical foundation that the spirit of one body passed into another which they wished might be their own.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook: Sir Thomas Browne." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (87); Box 6 (87).

n.d.—

Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems

“Sunday Meditations on Various Texts”

quoted · read

“To credit ordinary and visible objects is not faith, but persuasion.”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p278

Inferred Fuller attributes this passage to "A noble and accomplished man, of a later day," without naming him. The quotation is nearly verbatim from Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici, Part I, Section 9: "I bless myself and am thankful that I lived not in the days of miracles [...] I have no motive to believe the truth or divinity of his Gospel [...] nor should I enjoy that greater blessing pronounced to all that believe and saw not." Fuller was well acquainted with Browne's prose, suggesting this as the likely source despite the absence of a direct attribution.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p272

read

“I believe I had the pleasure of making her acquainted with Chaucer, with Ben Jonson, with Herbert, Chapman, Ford, Beaumont and Fletcher, with Bacon, and Sir Thomas Browne.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.

Inferred This entry concerns Margaret Fuller's encounter with the writings of Sir Thomas Browne. Though no specific work is named, Fuller's engagement with Browne is noted in conjunction with other significant literary figures. This suggests a broad familiarity with Browne's oeuvre, rather than a focus on a single text.