WorkJohn F. W. Herschel
A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1830 [publ. early 1831]; Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1831)
John F. W. Herschel (1792–1871) · London: Longman, 1830
AnalyzedReadMentioned
Documented 1836–1837
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Letters
Selected engagements, in chronological order.
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 →
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.
“I have finished Herschel, and really believe I am a little wiser.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · 1836
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re418 (Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections), Mem-2-03 l.6874-6876, 6920-6921, dated March 17 1836; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. Explicit 'I have finished Herschel.'
“I think Herschel will be very valuable to me, from the slight glance I have taken of it, and I thank Mr. F.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · 17 March 1836
Explicit 'the slight glance I have taken of it' documents direct engagement with the text.
“I have finished Herschel, and really believe I am a little wiser.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Hudspeth's notes confirm this work served as commentary on Bacon's Novum Organum.
“I think Herschel will be very valuable to me, from the slight glance I have taken of it, and I thank Mr.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
“When Herschel writes his Introduction to Natural Philosophy, I cannot test all he says, but I cannot err about his fairness, his manliness, and wide range of knowledge.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Hudspeth identified the work as A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830/1831) by John Frederick William Herschel; Fuller's title is her own paraphrase.
“I think Herschel will be very valuable to me" "I have finished Herschel”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.