Author

Emanuel Swedenborg(1688–1772)

Emanuel Swedenborg is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, journals, reading notebooks, and manuscripts (1835–1846). 6 distinct works are named, most often in Swedenborg and his Disciples., and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.

Engagement: ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Books · Essays · Journals · Notebooks · Manuscripts
Documented: 1835–1846

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 →

In Fuller’s words

“That the condition of good men, in heaven, which is a kingdom of uses, is a state of total separation from error and from evil – infinite in its varieties of good and eternal in the duration of its enjoyments / That the condition of the wicked in another life, is not a state of arbitrary punishment and external tortures, inflicted by the anger of omnipotence, but a condition of the mind, in which truth is prevented, and good rejected, and hence a state of voluntary ignorance, crime, and misery. ==”

De Caelo et Eius Mirabilibus et de Inferno [Heaven and Hell] · Journal April 1839 · 1839

When Fuller engaged with Emanuel Swedenborg

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed1record

IV. Transcendentalist4records

V. New York5records

VI. Europe4records

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

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

Swedenborg in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

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

1835—

Letter to Frederic H. Hedge

p226

mentioned

“You advised me to read Swedenborgian writings by way of counterpoise to Eichhorn,— Which—?”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Hedge advised Fuller to read "Swedenborgian writings" as a counterweight to Eichhorn's critical rationalism, and Fuller asks which specific work to procure without naming a title. She has not yet named a specific Swedenborg work, though she is actively seeking to engage with his writings.

1839—

Journal April 1839

p56

excerpted · readManuscript page

“That the condition of good men, in heaven, which is a kingdom of uses, is a state of total separation from error and from evil – infinite in its varieties of good and eternal in the duration of its enjoyments / That the condition of the wicked in another life, is not a state of arbitrary punishment and external tortures, inflicted by the anger of omnipotence, but a condition of the mind, in which truth is prevented, and good rejected, and hence a state of voluntary ignorance, crime, and misery.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal April 1839." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (Box A); Box 5 (99).

Inferred The passage on heaven as a 'kingdom of uses' and hell as a 'condition of the mind' characterized by voluntary ignorance is characteristic of Swedenborg's theology; no work is named. This isolated passage on p. 56, following the van Artevelde excerpts, describes heaven as a 'kingdom of uses' and hell as a 'condition of the mind' — vocabulary and theology that are distinctively Swedenborgian.

1840—

Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson

p115

read

“there lies beneath very slight expressions of his thought a double meaning like that supposed in the Swedenborgian construction.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Inferred Fuller invokes "the Swedenborgian construction" as a hermeneutic framework for understanding Shakespeare's double meanings, referring to Swedenborg's doctrine of correspondences whereby natural and textual phenomena serve as emblems of spiritual realities

1841—

Reading Notes, 1841

p17

mentioned

“Philo-Judaeus, Swedenborg, Origen, Fenelon, Boethius, Madame Guyon, Mirandola, Dante, Petrarca, More, Cudworth, Norris.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notes, 1841." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1221 (Caroline Sturgis Tappan papers, 1838–1921).

1842—

Journal Fragments, 1842

p39

analyzed · read

“I have found two in Swedenborg that I like, they have a deep mystical significance, one is on colors the other on forms.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Fragments, 1842." Margaret Fuller Family Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1843—

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843

analyzed · read

“The glances at the spirit-world have none of that large or universal significance, none of that value from philosophical analogy, that is felt in any picture by Swedenborg, or Dante, of permanent relations.”

Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.

Inferred Fuller contrasts the Seherin's limited spirit-world visions with Swedenborg's, which she says have 'large or universal significance' and 'value from philosophical analogy.' Fuller is clearly familiar with Swedenborg's writings on the spirit world; the reference is to the body of his visionary-theological work rather than any single title.

1845—

Letter to James Nathan

p138

analyzed

“some of the pieces have attracted a good deal of attention and reply especially pieces on Swedenborgianism which I should like you to have seen”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

1845—

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

p52

analyzed · read3 selected passages

“In perfect freedom, such as is painted in Olympus, in Swedenborg's angelic state”

“This the angel of Swedenborg, the angel of the coming age, cannot surpass, but only explain more fully.”

“Swedenborg came, he tells us, to interpret the past revelation and unfold a new... His idea of woman is sufficiently large and noble...”

Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.

1845—

Swedenborg and his Disciples.

“Swedenborg and his Disciples.”

quoted · read6 selected passages

“He says, himself, (in answer to the question of Mr. Hartley, after indicating the honors he had through life enjoyed, as well as those that lay open to him”

“I live, besides, on terms of familiarity and friendship with all the bishops of my country, who are ten in number”

“But when he says farther: “We (they,) find in the works of Swedenborg all, and much more than all, the true spiritual instruction which is to be found in the teachings of all other men put together”

“The pupils of Swedenborg cannot attach an “exaggerated importance to the truths he taught” but they may to the form of the teachings and the personalities of the teacher.”

“If Swedenborg’s works contain intimations of a system whose full development must be coincident with the perfection of all things, such intimations need all other means of growth and knowledge to fit the pupil for their reception.”

“If Swedenborg was instructed by direct influx from a higher sphere, it is not by an anxious and literal study of his communications alone, but by an elevation of the soul and purification of the nature that the reader will be able to reach with the eye of the understanding.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Swedenborg and his Disciples." New-York Daily Tribune, 7 July 1845.

1845—

Swedenborgianism.

“Swedenborgianism.”

quoted · read2 selected passages

“It quotes Swedenborg’s letter to Mr. Hartley, written with such a beautiful dignity, and giving so distinct an idea of the personal presence of the writer”

“They viewed with respect, if not with confidence, his conviction that he was “in fellowship with angels.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Swedenborgianism." New-York Daily Tribune, 25 June 1845.

1846—

Papers on Literature and Art

p163-p165

analyzed · read

“The works of Swedenborg contain intimations of a system... This is to us the greatness of Swedenborg and the ground of our pleasure in his works...”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Inferred Under the author-only rule: no specific work title can be inferred without further fingerprint.

Fuller also mentions Swedenborg's letter to 'Mr. Hartley' (which Noble's Appeal quotes) and Kant's letter about the Stockholm fire — but these are documents quoted in Noble's book, not independent references Fuller read directly.

1846—

Memorabilia of Swedenborg . . .

“Memorabilia of Swedenborg . . .”

analyzed · quoted · read3 selected passages

“We are much pleased to see the Memorabilia presented in a form that will make them accessible to all. They are full of profound insights, and cannot be read to any purpose”

“I have spoken with angels concerning infants, whether they are pure evils, because they have no actual evil, like adults: but it was told me that they are equally in evil, yes, that they also are nothing but evil”

“It is known, that man derives evil from each parent, and that this evil is called hereditary evil, therefore he is born into it; but still it does not manifest itself until the man”

Fuller, Margaret. "Memorabilia of Swedenborg . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 6 January 1846.