s own salvation, though he did not feel so much confidence in the
genuineness of his religious exercises as to make a public profession
of his faith until three years afterwards. In 1824, he united with the
Congregational Church in his native place, and in the autumn of the
same year joined the Freshman class in Dartmouth College.

"By severe labor during his collegiate course, he overtasked his
naturally feeble constitution, and thus prepared the way for much
future debility and suffering. He was graduated in 1828, on which
occasion he delivered the valedictory oration.

"After spending a few weeks in recruiting his health at his father's,
he became, for a short time, assistant editor of the 'New Hampshire
Observer,' at Portsmouth, but before the close of 1828 he entered the
Theological Seminary at Andover. In the spring of 1829, he accepted an
invitation to take charge of a Young Ladies' Select School at
Portsmouth; but in the autumn of 1830 his declining health obliged him
to relinquish it, and to seek a Southern residence. He went to Prince
Edward County, Virginia, and secured a situation as teacher in an
excellent family,--that of Dr. Morton, and at the same time entered
the Union Theological Seminary, of which the Rev. Dr. John H. Rice was
the founder and principal professor. He remained in the family of Dr.
Morton till he had completed the prescribed course of study, and was
licensed to preach by the West Hanover Presbytery in April, 1831;
after which he supplied the church at Scottsville for six months. So
acceptable were his services, that the congregation would gladly have
retained him as their pastor; but, as he preferred a Northern
residence, he declined all overtures for a settlement, and returned to
New England, with his health much improved, in 1832. In November of
the same year he was ordained pastor of the First Church in Lynn,
Mass. In September, 1834, he was married to Maria, daughter of Lincoln
Brigham, then of Cambridge, but formerly of Southborough, Mass. In
January, 1835, he was attacked with a severe hemorrhage, which greatly
reduced his strength, and obliged him for a season to intermit his
labors. Finding the climate unfavorable, he reluctantly came to the
determination to resign his pastoral charge, with a view of seeking an
inland home, when his health should be sufficiently recruited to
justify him in resuming the stated duties of the ministry.

"Accordingly, in the spring of 1835, he was