After a classical education at Halberstadt and
Wolfenbüttel, Abel entered himself at the former place as a student of
theology, in 1731, under
Johann Lorenz von Mosheim; a year later, he moved to
Halle, where he attended the lectures of
Christian Wolff and
Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, and often preached himself with much applause. Though he had a great chance of succeeding to the rectorship of St. John's school in his native place, Abel in a few years gave up theological pursuits altogether, applied to medicine at Halle, and in 1744 was admitted to the degree of doctor at
Königsberg in
Prussia. On his return to Halberstadt, he practised as a physician for over half a century before his death in 1794. In the early part of his life, Abel had made a poetical translation of the
Satires of Juvenal into German, which, by the advice of his friend Gleim, he retouched a few years before his death, and published in 1788. He intended to correct and publish
Ovid's
Remedia Amoris, which he had also translated in his youth, and to attempt
Persius, but age and other occupations prevented him from accomplishing this. Abel married in 1744, and left three daughters and two sons, one of whom, John Abel, physician at
Düsseldorf, has distinguished himself as a writer. ==References==