Editing Phillips Brooks (section)

===Early life and education===
Born in Boston, Brooks was descended through his father, William Gray Brooks, from the Rev. [[John Cotton (puritan)|John Cotton]]; through his mother, Mary Ann Phillips, he was a great-grandson of [[Samuel Phillips, Jr.]], founder of [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts]]. Three of Brooks' five brothers{{snd}}Frederic, Arthur, and John Cotton{{snd}}were eventually ordained in the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]].

Phillips Brooks prepared for college at the [[Boston Latin School]] and graduated from [[Harvard University]] in 1855 at the age of 20, where he was elected to the [[A.D. Club]]. He worked briefly as a school teacher at Boston Latin, but, upon being fired, felt that he had failed miserably. He wrote, "I do not know what will become of me and I do not care much.... I wish I were fifteen years old again. I believe I might become a stunning man: but somehow or other I do not seem in the way to come to much now."<ref>Clyde E. Fant and William M. Pinson, Jr., Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, Volume 6 (Waco, TX: Word, 1971), p. 114</ref> In 1856, he began to study for ordination in the Episcopal Church in the [[Virginia Theological Seminary]] at [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]], [[Virginia (U.S. state)|Virginia]]. While a seminarian there, he preached at Sharon Chapel (now All Saints Episcopal Church, Sharon Chapel) in nearby [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]].