WorkWilliam Burdon

Materials for Thinking

Materials for Thinking (1795) Inferred

William Burdon (1764–1818) · 1795

InferredFuller refers to 'Burdon' (completed a book by him) and quotes three passages attributed to 'B.' without naming a specific title.

AnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1835

Manuscripts

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 →

AttestedConfirmed readingEvidence ↓

Confirmed reading

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

undatedMaterials for ThinkingAttested
“I have finished Burdon: I think him an excellent man and a fair thinker...”
Manuscripts (Houghton Library, Margaret Fuller Family Papers) · 5th Decr
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re766 (Manuscripts (Houghton Library, Margaret Fuller Family Papers), M-015.txt lines 37-45; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. "I have finished Burdon" is an explicit completed-reading statement in a reading journal.
undatedMaterials for ThinkingDemonstrated
“The debasing effect of interest on the human mind is such that we generally despise those who are superior to its temptations. Burdon”
Manuscripts (Houghton Library, Margaret Fuller Family Papers) · 5th Decr
Manuscript notebook entry copying out a substantial multi-clause quoted passage from Burdon, indicating pen-in-hand reading.

When Fuller engaged with this work

No datable encounters with Burdon, William have been catalogued yet.

1835—

Notes on Burdon, Hugo, Child, and Jewsbury

p1–p2

analyzed · quoted · readManuscript page

“I have finished Burdon: I think him an excellent man and a fair thinker _ but could never coincide in opinion with one who seemed to me to leave out of view a large part of our nature _ He is an infidel in the last degree _ Materialist, Necessarian, Utilitarian and yet I do believe a sincere philanthropist.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Burdon, Hugo, Child, and Jewsbury." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Fuller refers to 'Burdon' (completed a book by him) and quotes three passages attributed to 'B.' without naming a specific title.

Fuller quotes three passages attributed to 'B.' (Burdon): (1) 'The debasing effect of interest on the human mind is such that we generally despise those who are superior to its temptations'; (2) 'Without imagination hope has nought to feed on, and without hope imagination will soon perish'; (3) 'The world is principally indebted to two kinds of men; those who make it better and those who prevent it from being worse.' These are aphoristic sentences consistent with William Burdon's 'Materials for Thinking,' a widely reprinted collection of philosophical and moral reflections.