Author
Sir James Mackintosh is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, and manuscripts (1833–1846). 5 distinct works are named, most often in The Life of Sir James Mackintosh, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
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 →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Sir James Mackintosh’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“Sir James has seized the effect produced upon her works by the difference between her ideal and real character. This is one great secret of her eloquence...”
Papers on Literature and Art
Substantial ~20-line verbatim quotation from Mackintosh's journal on Madame de Stael.
“The letters of this extraordinary man are all full of the highest flights of virtuous sentiment, amidst the grossest obscenities and the constant violation of the most sacred duties...”
Papers on Literature and Art
Substantial ~19-line verbatim quotation from Mackintosh's journal entry on Mirabeau.
“I have just read Priestley's Life of himself. It is an honest, plain, and somewhat dry account of a well-spent life...”
Papers on Literature and Art
Substantial ~29-line verbatim quotation from Mackintosh's journal entry on Priestley.
“Such a mind as Sir J. M's is, of course, admirably adapted to conversation. his mind, wanting the main spring of invention, needed the action of other minds. There is no letter so noble and beautiful as Sir J. M's to Robert Hall on his recovery from insanity unless it be Crabbe's to Burke or D. Körner's to his partner. … The Q. R. is very severe on Sir J. M's account of his tutor and redicules his gratitude.”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“The copiousness of Sir J. Mackintosh's reading journals is, I think, intimately connected with his literary indolence.”
Fuller, Margaret. "General Reading Notes." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
“this saying of Sir J. Mackintosh's about somebody. 'He has cultivated the delicacy of his sentiments at the expense of the health of his virtues.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Inferred Fuller attributes this epigram to "Sir J. She applies the saying to an unnamed person (likely W.
Fuller attributes this epigram to "Sir J.
“Had it been so, what a noble work might we have had instead of the Vindicise Gallicse”
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
“I dare affirm, in opposition to that refined critic, Sir James Mackintosh, that there was no touch of an idealizing tendency in his mind; yet he is a poet; he is so through his calm but deep and steady sympathy with all that is human; he is so by his distinguished power of observation; he is so by his graphic skill.”
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. · p76
Also printed in Art, Literature, and the Drama (1869), p76; page given is to the 1869 reprint.
“Perhaps here Mr. Mackintosh kept in mind his father's admirable remark upon Mrs. Opie's Memoir of her husband.”
Also printed in Art, Literature, and the Drama (1869), p55; page given is to the 1869 reprint.
“what a noble work might we have had instead of the Vindicioe Gallicoe! A bright star was that, but we might have had a sun.”
Also printed in Art, Literature, and the Drama (1869), p59; page given is to the 1869 reprint.
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“Such a mind as Sir J. M's is, of course, admirably adapted to conversation. his mind, wanting the main spring of invention, needed the action of other minds.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Books, Children, and Faith." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
“THE LIFE OF SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. BY HIS SON; ROBERT JAMES MACKINTOSH.”
Fuller, Margaret. Art, Literature, and the Drama. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. New York: The Tribune Association, 1869. · p53
Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.
“I have twice read through the life of Sir J. Mackintosh; and it has suggested so much to me”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.