ALGER, William Rounseville, clergyman, born in Freetown, Massachusetts, 30 December 1822. He studied for the ministry, was graduated at Harvard theological school in 1847, and received the degree of A. M. from Harvard in 1852. Imediately on his ordination he became pastor of a Unitarian Church in Roxbury, and in 1855 removed to Boston, where he became pastor of the Bullfinch street Church, and finally united with Theodore Parker's congregation in 18"68, whom he succeeded as pastor, then worshipping in Music Hall. In 1874 he removed to New York, and in 1875 became pastor of the Unitarian Church of the Messiah in that city until 1878, when he moved to Denver, thence to Chicago in 1880, to Portland in 1881, and returned to Boston. His published works comprise "The Poetry of the Orient" or Metrical Specimens of the Thought, Sentiment, and Fancy of the East," prefaced by an elaborate dissertation (Boston, 1856: new ed., 1861); an edition, with an introduction, of James Martineau's "Studies of Christianity" (1858) ; "A Critical History of the Doctrine of Future Life," with a bibliography by Ezra Abbot, containing 5,000 titles (1861) ; " The Genius of Solitude; or The Loneliness of Human Life" (1861); "Friendships of Women" (1867) ; "Prayers offered in the Massachusetts House of Representatives during the Session of 1868 " (1869) ; "The End of the World and the Day of Judgment," and "The Sword, the Pen, and the Pulpit ; a Tribute to Charles Dickens" (two pamphlets, 1870) ; "Life of Edwin Forrest, with a Critical History of the Dramatic Art" (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1877); "The School of Life" (Boston, 1881) ; and "A Symbolic History of the Cross of Christ " (1881). "