For the first thirty years of his life, Emerson did nothing to distinguish himself from respectable mediocrity. His educational and vocational choices were quite predictable for the son of a Harvard-educated Boston minister of a liberal Congregationalist (later Unitarian) parish. Although his father's death in 1811 left the family in straitened circumstances, young Emerson duly attended Boston Latin School, Harvard College (A.B., 1821), and (after several years of reluctant school teaching) Harvard Divinity School. His undergraduate record was lackluster (he was thirtieth in a class of fiftynine), and his career as a theology student was still more uneven: his course of study was irregular and constantly interrupted by sickness. But Emerson 's character, connections, and preaching abilities were attractive enough to gain him, in 1829, the post of assistant to his former divinity instructor, Henry Ware, Jr., at Boston's Second Church (Unitarian). Emerson 's almost immediate promotion to head pastor and his marriage to Ellen Louisa Tucker, a well-to-do merchant's daughter, seemed to complete a relatively easy transition into an establishment position which many New England youths would have envied.
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