and took charge of the Unitarian church in Washington, D. C. William Henry Channing, along with the younger Ellery Channing, was a Transcendentalist. He was a prolific writer, contributing to the North American Review, the Dial, the Christian Examiner, and other serials, a member of the Transcendental Club, a close friend of Henry David Thoreau and corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson. Among his inspirational writings, one piece, his "Symphony", is well-known: To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common — this is my symphony. Channing was, in 1863 and 1864, the Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives. He died in London. Larger works A translation of Jouffroy's Ethics (1840)Memoir of [his uncle] William Ellery Channing (three volumes, 1848)Memoir of [his cousin] the Rev. James H. Perkins (1851)Memoir of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (in conjunction with Emerson and J. F. Clarke (1852) Literature For his Life consult O. B. Frothingham (Boston, 1886) See also Normal School for Colored Girls References External links William Henry Channing from the Transcendentalism Web George Ripley; Charles A. (Charles Anderson) Dana, editors (1873) "Channing, William Henry", The American Cyclopaedia'', D. Appleton & Company 1810 births 1884 deaths 19th-century American translators American Christian clergy American Christian socialists 19th-century American memoirists American Unitarians Chaplains of the United States House of Representatives Fourierists Harvard Divinity School alumni Massachusetts socialists Members of the Transcendental Club Unitarian socialists Utopian socialists Writers from Boston Writers from Washington, D.C. American women's rights activists 19th-century American clergy