MEMOIR.

ABIEL ABBOT, the author of the following Sermons, was born in Andover, Mass. on the 17th of August, 1770. He was the youngest, with the exception of one who died in early infancy, of the children of John and Abigail Abbot. The paternal estate, where he continued under the guiding care of his excellent parents to the time of his entering college, had been the residence of his ancestors from so remote a period as the year 1645. To the good understanding and eminent piety of his mother, he was indebted for those religious principles and impressions, which imbued his opening character, and which, in after life, lent an increasing lustre to his piety. When but a child, he was in the habit of private devotion, and often retired for this purpose to the solitary groves, which surrounded his paternal residence. To the benefit, which he had himself experienced of early christian education, may be traced his deep interest and devoted labors in the cause of early moral and religious instruction.

At the age of fourteen, he was the subject of a severe nervous fever, occasioned by thrusting his arm into a cold spring on his father's estate, in the heat of a summer's day; the shock of which was so great as to produce insensibility, and from the effects of which upon his constitution, he never wholly recovered. This incident, from a conviction not then uncommon, had its influence in determining the character of his future pursuits. Under all the disadvantages of imperfect health, to which from this time he was subject, he was remarkable for cheerfulness and a natural elasticity of mind.

From early life he possessed a strong love of books, and an ardent thirst for knowledge. His course had been originally intended for occupation in the labors of agriculture; but his earnest entreaties, seconded by those of his mother, in connexion with the feeble state of his health, induced a change in his father's purposes, and he was placed to pursue his preparation for college, at Phillips Academy, then under the care of the celebrated Dr. Pemberton. He there immediately gave proof of the industry and talent, which marked his future life, occupying the first rank in a large class, mostly his superiors in order of admission, and indulging his love of study to a degree, which essentially impaired his health, and occasioned the necessity of parental interference. The value he attached to these early advantages is indicated by his persevering practice, through the winter months, of rising at the hour of four, and oftener earlier than later. To the general and private attentions he experienced at the Academy, in the cul