Ralph Waldo Emerson, the third son of William Emerson and Ruth Haskins, was born in Boston, Massa_chusotts, on May 25, 1903. William Emerson was a Unitarian minietor, a founder of the Philosophical Society, an active member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, an editor of the Monthly Anthology, and a chaplain of Massachusetts State Senate. He died in 1811, leaving five sons: William, Edward, Robert, Charles and Ralph Waldo. One of them, Edward, was mentally retarded. Ralph Waldo Emerson started school when he was two years old. Ho went on to a grammar schoool and then entered the Boston Latin School when he was ten. In 1817 Emerson entered Harvard College. He graduated in 1821, barely in the upper half of his class. Neither his mates nor his professors saw in him any indication of future greatness. But at Harvard he had begun his journals in which he deposited thoughts and quotations to be drawn upon later as needed.