the children he condescended to lay aside the scholar, the philosopher, and the wit, to write little poems of devotion, and systems of instruction, adapted to their wants and capacities, from the dawn of reason, through its gradations of advance in the morning of life. JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, Watts, Lives of the English Poets.

His stature was beneath the common standard, perhaps not above five feet, or at most five feet two inches, but without any thing like deformity in his frame. His body was spare and lean, his face oval, his nose acquiline, his complexion fair and pale, his forehead low, his cheek bones rather prominent, but his countenance on the whole by no means disagreeable, his eyes were small and grey, and whenever he was attentive or eager, amazingly piercing and expressive, his voice was rather too fine and slender, at least it would have been thought so, if he had been of a larger mould, but it was regular, audible, and pleasant.-GIBBONS, THOMAS, 1780, Memoir of Dr. Isaac Watts, p. 322. In reviewing these discourses it be may justly remarked, that they possess uncommon excellence, and in some respects, notwithstanding the many volumes of sermons since published, have never been exceeded, or even equalled. The beautiful perspicuity and simplicity of their style renders them familiar to the meanest capacities. Their originality of thought, and the happy illustrations that abound in them, discover the genius of the writer; but the fervour of his exhortations, his close addresses to the conscience, and the rich veins of evangelical truth and christian experience in every discourse, shew the christian divine in full proportion. The only thing that can be justly objected to is, that they contain redundancies of expression, and some slight inaccuracies, not exactly conformable to the critical taste of the present age. It is to be remembered, however, that they were written or revised in the chamber of sickness; many of them perhaps with an aching head, and a trembling hand. If they do not, in general, smell of the lamp of study so much as some productions of the present age, they partake more of the holy unction of the gospel.—BURDER, GEORGE, 1810, ed., The Works of Isaac Watts, Memoir, vol. 1, p. xx.

No circumstance, either public or private, tended to provoke in him any angry or acrimonious feelings. Strongly as he was attached to the general principle of nonconformity, there was no bitterness in his dissent; he lived not only in charity with all men, but on terms of good will and friendship with some of the most eminent of the clergy. All parties agreed in rendering justice to the benignity of his disposition, the usefulness of his labours, and the purity of his life.SOUTHEY, ROBERT, 1834, Life of Isaac Watts, p. 19.

We know little of the mother of Dr. Watts, beyond this simple but touching record, and that she was an excellent woman, who, like her son, would seem to have had a taste for poetic numbers; for it is told of her, that when her husband kept a school at Southampton, she used to encourage the boys after their lessons to write verses, and that she used to give those who did so a farthing as a reward. Her own boy would seem to have been a little touched on this point with something of becoming zeal for the poet's honour, for his early composition was this:

"I write not for a farthing, but to try How I your farthing writers can defy." -ELLIS, SARAH SARAH STICKNEY, 1859-83, Mothers of Great Men, Second ed., p 293.

In the nave of Westminster Abbey, the last resting-place of so many kings, queens, poets, artists, divines, and philosophers, we saw a little tablet of white marble, sacred to the memory of Dr. Watts. On its front is a figure of Watts sitting on a stool, apparently lost in deep thought and meditation. In one hand he holds a pen, and with the other points to a celestial globe, while an angel seems opening to his enraptured senses the "wonders of creation." A bust of the great divine rests upon the monument, and below are the words, "Isaac Watts, D. D., born July 17, 1674, died November 25, 1748."

-CLARKE, HELEN F., 1874, Isaac Watts and his Hymns, Congregational Quarterly, vol. 16, p. 418.

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF THE
TRINITY
1722

For my own part I cannot but think that this good man approached as nearly to christian perfection as any mortal ever did in this sublunary state; and therefore

I consider him as a better interpreter of the christian doctrine than the most learned critics, who, proud of their reason and their learning, despised or neglected the very life and soul of christianity, the living, everlasting gospel, the supernatural influence of divine grace; and be it ever remembered, that Dr. Watts was a man who studied the abstrusest sciences, and was as well qualified to become a verbal critic, or a logical disputant on the scriptures, as the most learned among the Doctors of the Sorbonne, or the greatest proficients in polemical divinity. I mention this circumstance for the consideration of those who insinuate that the doctrines of grace cannot be entertained but by ignorant, as well as fanatical persons; by persons uninitiated in the mysteries of philosophy.-KNOX, VICESSIMUS, 1795, Christian Philosophy.

Few writers have been more useful, especially in Psalms and Hymns: a fine genius, and deep piety. He fell into some peculiar notions on the Trinity, and was answered by Abraham Taylor, Hurrion, and Edwards. If the wise and good Dr. Watts erred, let all take heed of rash speculations on revealed things.-BICKERSTETH, EDWARD, 1844, The Christian Student.

The Logic of Watts, of Duncan, and of others, are worth reading as books, but not as books upon Logic.-HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM, 1856?-60, Lectures on Logic, Lecture ix.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND
1741

An excellent work. It is metaphysics carried into every day life and practice. -BLAKEY, ROBERT, 1848, History of the Philosophy of Mind, vol. III, p. 244.

The justice of this commendation has generally been acceded to, although more. recent inquiries have shown, that some of the views of the mind in the book in question are defective.-UPHAM, THOMAS COGSWELL, 1831-33, Elements of Mental Philosophy, vol. II, p. 75, note.

HYMNS

We come to the greatest name among hymn-writers, for we hesitate not to give that praise to Dr. Isaac Watts, since it has pleased God to confer upon him, though one of the least of the poets of his country, more glory than upon the greatest either of that or of any other, by making his Divine Songs a more abundant and useful blessing than the verses of any uninspired penman that ever lived. In his Psalms and Hymns (for they must be classed together), he has embraced a compass and variety of subjects which include and illustrate every truth of revelation, throw light upon every secret movement of the human heart, whether of sin, nature, or grace, and describe every kind of trial, temptation, conflict, doubt, fear and grief, as well as the faith, hope, charity, the love of joy, peace, labor, and patience of the Christian in all stages of his course on earth; together with the terrors of the Lord, the glories of the Redeemer, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit, to urge, allure, and strengthen him by the way. Then, as in the pages of the evangelist, a word in season for every one who needs it, in whatever circumstance she may require counsel, consolation, reproof, or instruction. We say this, without reserve, of the materials of his hymns, had their execution always been correspondent with the preciousness of these, we should have had a Christian Psalmist, in England, next (and that only in date, not in dignity) to the Sweet Singer of Israel!--MONTGOMERY, JAMES, 1825, The Christian Psalmist, Introductory Essay.

Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, the hymn in each case giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had been discoursing. Produced as they were wanted, and for a practical purpose, some of these hymns lack the fire and genius of poetry, and the same must be admitted of some of his other productions.-MILLER, JOSIAH, 1866, Our Hymns, p. 82.

The Independents, as represented by Dr. Watts, have a just claim to be considered the real founders of modern English hymnody. No doubt Watts's taste was often faulty, and his style unequal; but more hymns which approached to a very high standard of excellence might be found in his works than in those of any

other single writer in the English language.-PALMER, SIR ROUNDELL, 1866, Lecture on English Church Hymnody.

We are confirmed in our estimate of the relative value of Watts' hymns by the proportion they bear in nearly all our collections to those of other contributors. Of 1290 hymns in the "Sabbath Hymn Book," 254, as we count, are from Watts, and 56 from Charles Wesley, the next largest contributor. The "Plymouth Collection" has 1374 hymns, of which 218 are from Watts and 81 are from Wesley. In "Songs for the Sanctuary," Dr. Charles S. Robinson's book, there are 1345 hymns, with 198 from Dr. Watts. "Psalms and Hymns," the Connecticut Collection, so called, has 1293 separate pieces, of which 514 are Watts'. The "Psalmist" (Baptist) has 1180, with 301 from Dr. Watts. And so in nearly all the hymn books of the various denominations, with the exception of the Methodist Episcopal and Wesleyan churches; and in their collections, while Wesley leads, Watts is admitted to the second rank. A recent writer in an English magazine, after an examination of 750 different hymn books, ascribes to Dr. Watts the authorship of two-fifths of the hymns which are used in the English-speaking world.-ROBINSON, R. T., 1868, Dr. Watts' Hymns, Hours at Home, vol. 7, p. 519.

There are lines in those hymns which offend against all good taste. Yet there are wonderful jewels in that oft rubbishy mass of some six hundred religious poems. The man who could write them "ought not to have written as he has written." They "will be sung, I fancy," says the same critic, "so long as men praise God together." And indeed, they are wonderful, wonderful in their firm clear English, their noble sentences, in that true ring which touches every Christian heart.PRESCOTT, J. E., 1883, Christian Hymns and Hymn Writers, p. 97.

I don't know but these bits of moral music may have been hustled out from modern church primers for something more æsthetic; but I am sure that a good many white-haired people-of whom I hope to count some among my readersare carried back pleasantly by the rhythmic jingle of the good Doctor to those child days when hopes were fresh, and holidays a joy, and summers long; and

when flowery paths stretched out before us, over which we have gone toiling since -to quite other music than that of Dr. Isaac Watts. And if his songs are gone out of our fine books, and have fallen below the mention of the dilettanti critics, I am the more glad to rescue his name, as that of an honest, devout, hard-working, cultivated man who has woven an immeasurable deal of moral fibre into the web and woof of many generations of men and women. MITCHELL, DONALD G., 1895, English Lands Letters and Kings, Queen Anne and the Georges, p. 14.

His poetical fame rests on his hymns. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the stern embargo which Calvin had laid on the use in the music of sacred worship of everything except metrical psalms and canticles has been broken by the obscure hymns of Mason, Keach, Barton, and others; and hymns were freely used in the baptist and independent congregations. The poetry of Watts took the religious world of dissent by storm. It gave an utterance, till then unheard in England, to the spiritual emotions, in their contemplation of God's glory in nature and his revelation in Christ, and made hymn-singing a fervid devotional force. The success of Watts's hymns approached that of the new version of the Psalms. Edition followed edition. In the early years of this century the annual output of Watts's hymns, notwithstanding all the wealth of hymn production arising out of methodism, was still fifty thousand copies. -BENNETT, LEIGH, 1899, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LX, p. 68.