THOMAS, D.D., one of the most distinguished Presbyterian divines that America has yet produced, was born in 1752, at Northampton, in the state of Massachusetts. From his mother, who was a daughter of Jonathan Edwards, he inherited those principles and that piety which he developed in his writings and manifested in all his actions. He studied at Yale College; which he had no sooner left than he was appointed teacher of a grammar-school at New Haven, where he remained for two years. At the early age of nineteen he was appointed tutor in Yale College, where he distinguished himself by the skill with which he taught the higher mathematics. In this same year he began his epic poem entitled the *Conquest of Canaan*, which was published in 1795. In 1777 he was licensed to preach the gospel, and accepted the office of chaplain to the forces; in which situation he remained till obliged by his father's death to return home and exert himself for the support of his family. Towards the close of the war of independence he was twice elected a member of the legislature. In 1783 he was ordained minister of Greenfield in Connecticut, where he opened an academy which speedily acquired a very high reputation, and attracted scholars from all parts of the Union. In 1795 he was elected president of Yale College, and by his judicious management restored that institution to the high place from which it had fallen before his appointment. Besides his *Travels in New England and New York*, written from notes taken in these countries during a series of journeys undertaken for the recovery of his health, Dr Dwight published a valuable treatise entitled *Theology Explained and Defended in a series of Sermons*, 5 vols. 8vo. It is upon this work that his fame as a theologian chiefly depends. After a long and honourable career, Dr Dwight died in the nineteenth year of his age. In 1827 two additional volumes of sermons (a small portion, however, of the MSS. which he left behind) were published, and were exceedingly well received in England as well as the United States.