[1] He then graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1822, meanwhile serving as tutor at Dartmouth 1818–1820, and spending several months in study at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In October 1824, he was ordained as a Congregational clergyman at Hanover, New Hampshire; then was a professor of languages and biblical literature at Hampden–Sydney College (Virginia) until 1826.

"German idealism was initially introduced to the broader community of American literati through a Vermont intellectual, James Marsh.

"[3] As president of the University of Vermont, Marsh instituted a program of a unified study where all seniors took a course in philosophy that sought to create a centralized model of knowledge.

In 1829 he contributed a series of papers on "Popular Education" to the Vermont Chronicle, under the pen name of "Philopolis", and he published a "Preliminary Essay" to Coleridge's Aids to Reflection (Burlington, 1829), and Selections from the Old English Writers on Practical Theology (1830).