Fuller wrote of her from Rome: "I have seen in Europe no woman more gifted
by nature than she."

Under date of October 25, 1845, Curtis mentions a religious meeting which
had been recently held at Brook Farm. This was a reference to one of the
many occasions on which William Henry Channing conducted religious
services there, for he was listened to with greater satisfaction than any
one else who spoke on religious subjects. When the weather was suitable he
preached in the grove near the Margaret Fuller cottage (so called); and on
the present occasion he asked those present to join hands and to repeat
with him a bond of union or confession of faith, and constitute themselves
into a church. Before this time no religious organization had existed at
Brook Farm, the utmost liberty of opinion being cultivated there. In fact,
the leaders of the movement had been strongly opposed to any religious
formalism or organized effort at religious instruction. The freedom of
belief was such that Freethinkers on the one side, and devout Catholics on
the other, were welcomed with equal cordiality. The majority of the
members were undoubtedly of the "liberal" school in theology, and found in
the preaching of Theodore Parker the kind of spiritual instruction they
desired. At one time there was an enthusiastic interest in the teachings
of Swedenborg.

It was the tendency towards what was at once practical and mystical which
drew the large majority of the Farmers to the preaching of William Henry
Channing, who was one of the most gifted preachers which America has
produced. He was imaginative, mystical, and eloquent, liberal in his
thinking, progressive in his social ideals, and profoundly religious. He
was thoroughly in sympathy with the Associationist movement, and more than
any other man he was the spiritual leader and confessor of those who found
in that movement a practical realization of their religious convictions.