William Ellery Channing (7 April 1780-2 October 1842), the leading spokesman for liberal religion of his generation in New England, helped to prepare the way for Transcendentalism. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of a lawyer and public official, and the grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated from Harvard in 1798, and in due course prepared for the ministry. From 1803 until his death he was the minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston. At the time of his ordination, the congregational churches of New England were still one body; but in the next thirty years, a period marked by bitter controversy, a division occurred between the liberal Christians, or Unitarians, and the orthodox or Trinitarian congregationalists. Although a reluctant controversialist, Channing belonged with the liberals, and a sermon preached at Baltimore in 1819 at the ordination of Jared Sparks attracted widespread attention as...