WorkAnonymous

The Golden Verses of Pythagoras

The Golden Verses of Pythagoras (Carmina Aurea); Inferred

Anonymous

InferredThe Thanksgiving essay quotes the same four-line verse, beginning "Pythagorean questions," that appears in B-1-25-R01. Fuller introduces it as "the old rhyme, which we all bear in mind if not in heart." This instance presents minor orthographic variants from the B-1-25 version, such as "knew'st" compared to "knewest."

QuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1844–1846

Books

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

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 work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York1record

VI. Europe1record

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1844—

New-York Daily Tribune

“Thanksgiving” · November 28, 1844, November 1844

quoted · read

“What hast thou done that's worth the doing, / And what pursued that's worth pursuing ? / What sought thou knew'st that thou shouldst shun, / What done thou shouldst have left undone ?”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p244

Inferred The Thanksgiving essay quotes the same four-line verse, beginning "Pythagorean questions," that appears in B-1-25-R01. Fuller introduces it as "the old rhyme, which we all bear in mind if not in heart." This instance presents minor orthographic variants from the B-1-25 version, such as "knew'st" compared to "knewest."

1846—

New-York Daily Tribune

“First of January” · January 1, 1846, January 1846 · p. 1

quoted · read

“What hast thou done that's worth the doing ? / And what pursued that's worth pursuing ? / What sought thou knewest thou shouldst shun ? / What done thou shouldst have left undone ?”

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 Fuller refers to this four-line verse as "the Pythagorean questions." The lines are a poetic rendering of the nightly self-examination prescribed by the Golden Verses of Pythagoras (Carmina Aurea, lines 40-44): "Where did I go wrong? Fuller evidently expected readers to recognize this literary-philosophical allusion. The same verse is quoted again in "Thanksgiving."