As Lawrence Buell has pointed out in an article for ESQ (1987), there is a close connection between American Unitarianism and the American literary renaissance of the nineteenth century, both aesthetically and genealogically, for many of the renowned writers of the period were connected to the Unitarian Church in some way and modeled their discourses on and found their subjects from similar influences. A powerful voice during his time, Orville Dewey was one of the most successful Unitarian ministers of nineteenth-century America. Known for his eloquence, he was, according to Octavius Brooks Frothingham, "perhaps the greatest" preacher of the Unitarian community. In a tribute to Dewey's life, the Reverend Henry Whitney Bellows called Dewey "the most truly human of our preachers" and claimed that he was "the founder and most conspicuous example of what is best in the modern school of preaching," practical preaching. The pastor of the Unitarian...