571 



WATTS, ISAAC. 



WATTS, ISAAC. 



C/3 



forty highly finished engravings. Except some occasional short 

 poems, this is his last publication. In 1853 a pension of 1002. a year 

 was conferred on him by the Queen. 



*Mns. ZILLAH WATTS, the wife of the preceding, and sister of J. 

 II. Wiffen, the translator of Tasso, is also distinguished for her literary 

 talents. From 1829 to 1836 she edited 'The New Year's Gift and 

 Juvenile Souvenir/ which partook of the character of that edited by 

 her husband. In 1839 she published ' The Juvenile Poetical Library.' 

 In 1845 she furnished the letter-press to Finden's 'Tableaux of 

 National Character, Beauty, and Costume ;' in 1849, that to 'Hogarth's 

 Tableaux, a series of original graphic Scones, with Illustrations in 

 Poetry and Prose ; ' and in 1856, ' The Birth- Day Council, or How to 

 be Useful.' 



WATTS, ISAAC, the eldest of nine children, was born at South- 

 ampton July 17, 1674. His father, who kept a boarding-school in that 

 town, was a man of strong devotional feeling and a rigid nonconformist. 

 He was imprisoned on account of his religion, and during his confine- 

 ment his wife sat on a stone at the prison door, with little leaac, then 

 an infant, at her breast. The child showed a taste for books at a very 

 early age, and imbibed under parents whose faith had been strengthened 

 by persecution that turn of mind which prompted the determination 

 to become a dissenting minister. 



Isaac Watts entered on the study of the learned languages in the 

 free grammar-school of his native town in his fourth year. The little 

 money he received in presents he spent upon books ; his leisure hours 

 he spent in reading instead of joining the other boys at play. When 

 only seven or eight years old he composed some devotional pieces to 

 please his mother. His gentle yet vivacious disposition obtained him 

 friends, who offered to support him at one of the universities; but 

 having been bred a nonconformist, he determined to remain one. He 

 was therefore sent, in his sixteenth year, to an academy in London, 

 kept by Mr. Thomas Howe, at that time minister of the Independent 

 meeting-house in Haberdasher's Hall. 



During the three years that he remained with Mr. Rowe, Watts pur- 

 sued his studies with intemperate ardour, allowing himself no time for 

 exercise, and curtailing the period allotted to sleep. He thus irre- 

 mediably injured his constitution. He used to mark all the books he 

 read, to abridge some of them, and annotate others, which were inter- 

 leaved for the purpose. Dr. Johnson says of his classical acquire- 

 ments " Some Latin essays, supposed to have been written as exercises 

 at his academy, show a degree of knowledge, both philosophical and 

 theological, such as very few attain by a much longer course of study ; " 

 and " In his youth he appears to have paid attention to Latin poetry : 

 his verses to his brother, in the glyconick measure, written when he 

 was seventeen, are remarkably easy and elegant." He also made some 

 proficiency in the study of Hebrew, of logic, and scholastic divinity. 

 His acquirements in mathematical and physical science appear to have 

 been inconsiderable. Before leaving the academy he joined in com- 

 munion with the congregation of Mr. Kowe, who was accustomed to 

 say that he never had occasion to reprove Watts, and who often held 

 him up as a pattern to his other pupils. Watts returned to his father's 

 house in 1694, and spent the next two years of his life in private study. 

 The greater part of his hymns, and probably most of his juvenile com- 

 positions, were composed during this time. 



In 1696 he was invited by Sir John Hartopp to reside in his family 

 at Stoke Newington as tutor to his son ; he remained there till the 

 beginning of 1702. Lady Hartopp was the daughter of Fleetwood by 

 his first marriage. Sir John, as might be inferred from his forming 

 such a connection, was a zealous nonconformist : when fiscal persecu- 

 tion was at its height, the fine upon Stoke Newington, of which he 

 paid the greater part, amounted to six or seven thousand pounds. In 

 this family the religious and political opinions which Watts had imbibed 

 from his parents and schoolmaster were strengthened. The first out- 

 line of the work afterwards published under the title of ' Logic' was 

 prepared during this period for the use of his pupil. Isaac Watts 

 pi-eached his first sermon on the day on which he completed his 

 twenty-fourth year the 17th of July 1698. In that year he was 

 chosen assistant to Dr. Chauncy, pastor of the Independent church 

 then meeting in Mark-lane, but he continued to reside and discharge 

 the duties of teacher in Sir John Hartopp's family till 1702. In that 

 year he was persuaded reluctantly to succeed Dr. Chauncy in the pas- 

 toral office. Soon after his entrance upon this charge he was seized 

 with a dangerous illness, which, after a long confinement and a slow 

 recovery, left him with a constitution so evidently impaired that the 

 congregation thought an assistant necessary, and accordingly, in July 

 1703, appointed Mr. Samuel Price. Watts's health returned gradually, 

 and he performed his duty till 1712, when he was seized by a fever so 

 violent and of such continuance that he never perfectly recovered. 



This illness excited the lively sympathy of all his friends. The 

 foremost in kind offices was Sir Thomas Abney, who invited him to 

 try the effect of change of air at his house at Theobalds. W.ttts 



Abney died ; but his amiable consort survives, who shows the Doctor 

 the same respect and friendship as before ; and most happily for him, 

 and great numbers besides (for as her riches were great, her generosity 

 and munificence were in full proportion), her thread of life was drawn 



out to a great age, even beyond that of the Doctor. And thus this 

 excellent man, through her kindness aud that of her daughter, Mrs. 

 Elizabeth Abney, who in a like degree honoured and esteemed him, 

 enjoyed all the benefits and felicities he experienced at his first entrance 

 into this family till his days were numbered and finished, and like a 

 shock of corn in his season, he ascended into the regions of perfect and 

 immortal life and joy." 



The tenor of the remainder of Watts's life was uniform. Sir Thomas 

 Abney had been bred up in dissenting principles; King William 

 knighted him ; and he served the office of Lord Mayor of London in 

 1700. His first wife was a daughter of Caryl, the first pastor of tho 

 Mark-lane congregation ; his second, a daughter of Mr. Qunston, an 

 honoured friend of Watts. The house of the Abneya at Theobalds 

 adjoined the site of Burleigh's residence. Of the splendid gardens of 

 that palace there remained little more than a long moss-grown walk, 

 overshadowed by two rows of elms, and within a few yards of the 

 entrance of the walk there stood, in Sir Thomas Abney's garden, a 

 summer-house, which, fifty years after Watts's death, was shown as 

 the place in which he had composed many of his works. Watta's use- 

 fulness among his flock was in nowise diminished by his residence at 

 Theobalds. There was a carriage at his command when his health 

 permitted him to officiate in London. When he was incapable of 

 public labour, he refused to receive his salary ; and at all times a third 

 part of his income was devoted to charitable uses. The seasons when 

 indisposition incapacitated him from public duty were spent in literary 

 composition. 



The most important of Watts's publications are : 1, ' Logic ; or, 

 the Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry after Truth : with a variety 

 of Rules to guard against Error in the affairs of Religion and Human 

 Life, as well as in the Sciences,' published in 1725. This treatise, 

 which appears to have been used in Dr. Johnson's time as a text-book 

 at Oxford, was written originally to assist the studies of Watts's pupil, 

 Sir John Hartopp, and was revised, augmented, and published at the 

 request of Mr. Eatnes. Dr. Johnson remarked of this work "If he 

 owes part of it to Le Clerc, it must be considered that no mau who 

 undertakes merely to methodise or illustrate a system, pretends to be 

 its author." 2, ' The Knowledge of the Heavens and Earth made 

 easy ; or, the First Principles of Astronomy and Geography explained 

 by the use of globes and maps, with a solution of the common 

 problems by a plain scale and compasses as well as by the globe : 

 written several years since, for the use of learners ; ' published in 

 1726. This is the work of an intelligent amateur ; it has of course 

 been long superseded. 3, ' The Improvement of the Mind,' an ex- 

 pansion of some passages in Locke's ' Conduct of the .Human Under- 

 standing.' 4, A number of works for children and young persons, 

 viz. : ' The Art of Reading and Writing English ; ' ' Prayers composed 

 for the Use and Instruction of Children : ' ' Divine Songs attempted 

 in easy language for the Use of Children,' &c. It was from motives 

 of gratitude to Sir Thomas and Lady Abney that he first engaged in 

 this humbler class of compositions. No compositions of the kind 

 have obtained such extensive use as his hymns and songs for children. 



5, ' An Essay towards the Encouragement of Charity Schools, parti- 

 cularly those which are suppotied by the Protestant Dissenters for 

 teaching the Children of the Poor to read and work : together with 

 some Apology for those Schools which instruct them to write a plain 

 hand, and fit them for Service or for the meaner Trades and Profes- 

 sions of Life : to which is prefixed an Address to the Supporters of 

 those Schools; ' published in 1728. The occasion of this publication 

 was a sermon which Watts had been desired to preach in the 

 November of the preceding year, in support of the dissenters' schools. 

 It vindicates the extension of education to the poor; and the 

 establishment of dissenting schools on the ground of the proselytising 

 character communicated to general schools by the High Church party. 



6, 'A Sermon preached at Berry Street, on the occasion of the Death 

 of our late gracious Sovereign George I., and the Peaceful Succession 

 of his present Majesty George II. ; ' published in 1727. This is 

 chiefly valuable as an exposition of the religious and political views of 

 the dissenters at that period. The theological works of Watts are 

 too numerous to admit of being recapitulated here. His ' Three Dis- 

 sertations relating to the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity,' aud 'Nine 

 Sermons preached in the years 1718-19,' published in 1812, with a 

 preface by Dr. Pye Smith, may be taken as fair specimens. The 

 ' Horae Lyrics) ' of Watts, from which an estimate of his poetical 

 talents may be formed, was republished in 1837, with a memoir by Dr. 

 Southey. A poet he can scarcely be called, yet his verse is generally 

 smooth, some times nervous ; and the matter is always judicious, 

 sometimes touching, sometimes approaching to eloquence. 



Watts is a classic of the people. His hymns for children Lave 

 exercised an influence on the minds of the young far beyond tho limits 

 of the dissenting body. His ' Logic ' was once a text-book iu various 

 places of education. He was in his day one of the most zealous ad- 

 vocates of the principles which placed the house of Hanover 011 the 

 throne; in his pamphlet iu defence of the dissenting charity-schools 

 he was the efficient precursor of those friends of popular instruction 

 who gave, at a later time, their countenance and support to Joseph 

 Lancaster; and his theological writings are prized by almost tho 

 whole religious public of Great Britain. Wherever the English lan- 

 guage is spoken Isaac Watts will be found to have exercised no slender 



