Margaret Fuller’s Reading Worlds

Exodus

Biblical Book

Documented in Fuller’s letters, books, journals, notebooks

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

Related

Entities
Bible (general) · Deuteronomy · Old Testament

Representative documentary evidence

1833—

Letter to Unknown

p179
read
“Who shall wonder at the stiff-necked, and rebellious folly of young Israel, bowing down to a brute image, though the prophet was bringing messages from the holy mountain, while one's own youth is so obstinately idolatrous!”

Fuller, Margaret. Letter 81 (1833). In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817-1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller alludes directly to the golden calf episode in Exodus 32–33, using the distinctive biblical phrase 'stiff-necked' (matching the King James Version exactly) and describing Israel 'bowing down to a brute image' while 'the prophet was bringing messages from the holy mountain,' a clear reference to Moses descending Mount Sinai with the tablets.

1838—

Letter to Jane F. Tuckerman

p347
read
“I was sure that I should never starve in this desert world, but that manna would drop from heaven, if I would but rise with every rising sun to gather it.”

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

Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.

1841—

Journal November 1841

p10
quoted · readSearch Digital Fuller (page unverified)
“And look that thou make them after their pattern which was showed thee in the mount (of vision) / Exodus XXV - 40”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal November 1841." Houghton Library, Harvard University; MS Am 1086; Box 5.

Inferred Fuller cites 'Exodus XXV - 40' explicitly by chapter and verse, making Old Testament the identified source. Title inferred (as 'Inferred') only in the sense that she names Exodus rather than 'Old Testament / Bible' generically; the specific Book and verse are explicit.

Fuller cites 'Exodus XXV - 40' explicitly by chapter and verse, making Old Testament the identified source.

1845—

New-York Daily Tribune

“Oliver Cromwell” · December 19, 1845 · p. 1
read
“He [Cromwell] was a strong man in the dark perils of war; in the high places of the field, hope shone in him like a pillar of fire, when it had gone out in the others”

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

Inferred The phrase "pillar of fire," quoted by Fuller from John Maidstone's remarks on Cromwell (as cited by Carlyle), alludes to the biblical image in Exodus 13:21–22, where God guides Israel as "a pillar of fire to give them light." This recognizable biblical allusion may originate with Maidstone or Carlyle, rather than being an independent reference by Fuller.

1845—

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

p157
read
“the infant Moses was, in every case, saved by the pure instincts of woman's breast.”

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

Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.

1849—

The Letters of Margaret Fuller: Edited by Robert N

quoted
“is true that while Moses slew the Egyptian, Christ stood to be spit upon and that Death to man could do no harm.”

Fuller, Margaret. The letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. 6 vols. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983–1994.

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

p. 11
quoted2 selected passagesManuscript page
“I am that I am' was God's own definition unto Moses, and 'twas a short one. to confound mortality, that durst question God to ask him what he was.”

Browne quotes the divine self-identification 'I am that I am' from Exodus 3:14 (KJV), explicitly crediting it to God's answer to Moses.

“I hope I do not break the fifth commandment if I conceive I may love my friend before the nearest of my blood even those to whom I owe the principles of life”

Inferred Browne alludes to the Fifth Commandment ('Honour thy father and thy mother,' Exodus 20:12 / Deuteronomy 5:16 / KJV) in the context of arguing that love of a true friend may exceed love of blood relations, while being careful not to claim he violates the commandment.

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