Philosopher, was born at Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a minister there, who had become a Unitarian, and who died in 1811, leaving a widow with six children, of whom Ralph, then aged 8, was the second. Mrs. Emerson was, however, a woman of energy, and by means of taking boarders managed to give all her sons a good education. Emerson entered Harvard in 1817 and, after passing through the usual course there, studied for the ministry, to which he was ordained in 1827, and settled over a congregation in his native city. There he remained until 1832, when he resigned, ostensibly on a difference of opinion with his brethren on the permanent nature of the Lord’s ...