WATT WATTS. 



895 



History, Nature, and Treatment of Chincough." 

 He was led to investigate particularly this disease, 

 by a severe visitation of it in his own family, in 

 which four of his children were affected at the same 

 time, the two eldest of whom died. To the volume 

 is subjoined, " An Inquiry into the Relative Mor- 

 tality of the principal Diseases of Children, and 

 the Numbers who have died under Ten Years of 

 Age, in Glasgow, during the last Thirty Years." 

 In 1814, he issued, anonymously, a small volume, 

 entitled " Rules of Life, with Reflections on the 

 Manners and Dispositions of Mankind." The vo- 

 lume consisted of a number of apophthegms and 

 short sentences, many of them original, and the 

 others, selected from the best English writers. In 

 1817, he was obliged, from delicacy of health, to 

 discontinue altogether his professional pursuits. He 

 had, by this time, brought his great work the " Bib- 

 liotheca Britannica," to a very considerable state 

 of forwardness ; had become interested in it, and 

 anxious for its completion. He probably saw that, 

 from the state of his constitution, the duration of 

 his life must be but limited, and was desirous, while 

 yet some strength remained, to place the work in 

 such a state, that even his death would not prevent 

 its publication. He retired, therefore, with his fa- 

 mily, to a small country-house about two miles from 

 Glasgow, engaged several young men as amanuenses, 

 and devoted himself exclusively to the compilation. 

 In this literary seclusion, he was for some time able 

 to make great progress in his undertaking ; but his 

 disease, which was of the stomach, gradually gained 

 ground, and he died upon the 12th of March, 1819, 

 aged only forty-five. 



Dr Watt's personal appearance was prepossessing. 

 He was tall in stature, and in early life, before his 

 health declined, robust. His countenance display- 

 ed great intelligence. In private life, he was uni- 

 versally esteemed. His character was formed on 

 the strictest principles of morality, with which was 

 blended a general urbanity of manners, that won at 

 once the good-will of whoever he addressed. Of 

 his various works, the " Bibliotheca Britannica" is 

 the one by which he will continue to be remember- 

 ed. Few compilations, of similar magnitude and 

 variety, ever presented, in a first edition, a more 

 complete design and execution. It is divided into 

 two parts ; the first part containing an alphabetical 

 list of authors, to the amount of above forty thou- 

 sand, and under each a chronological list of his 

 works, their various editions, sizes, price, &c., and 

 also of the papers he may have attributed to the 

 more celebrated journals of art and science. This 

 division differs little in its construction from that 

 of a common catalogue, only that it is universal in 

 its character, and in many instances, gives short 

 biographical notices of the author, and critical opi- 

 nions of his works. It also gives most ample lists 

 of the various editions of the Greek and Roman 

 classics, &c., and, under the names of the early 

 printers, lists of the various books which they 

 printed. In the second part, all the titles of works, 

 recorded in the first part, and also anonymous 

 works, are arranged alphabetically under their prin- 

 cipal subjects. This part forms a minute index to 

 the first, and upon it, the chief claim of the " Bib- 

 liotheca" to novelty and value rests; for it lays 

 before the reader at a glance, a chronological list of 

 all the works that have been published on any par- 

 ticular subject that he may wish to consult, with 

 references to their respective authors, or with the 

 publisher's name, if anonymous. While, in short, 



the first part forms a fuH. and comprehensive cata- 

 logue of authors and their works, the second forms 

 an equally complete and extensive encyclopedia of 

 all manner of subjects on which books have been 

 written. The utility of such a work, to the stu- 

 dent and author in particular, must be obvious ; 

 for, with the facility with which he can ascertain 

 in a dictionary the meaning of a word, can he here 

 ascertain all that has been published on any branch 

 of human knowledge. 



Dr Watt married, while in Paisley, the daughter 

 of a farmer in his father's neighbourhood, by whom 

 he had nine children. At his death, the publica- 

 tion of the " Bibliotheca" devolved upon his two 

 eldest sons, who devoted themselves to its comple- 

 tion with filial enthusiasm. John, the elder of the 

 two, died in 1821, at the age of twenty ; James, 

 his brother, lived to see the work completed, but 

 died in 1829. The printing of the " Bibliotheca" 

 was completed in 1824, in four large quarto vo- 

 lumes. Messrs Archibald Constable and Company 

 of Edinburgh entered into engagements for the 

 work, but, owing to the failure of that house, the 

 author's family never received any benefit from its 

 publication. 



WATTEAU, ANTOINE; a painter of great me- 

 rit, talents and industry, born in 1684, at Valen- 

 ciennes. His parents, whose situation in life was 

 very humble, with difficulty contrived to give him 

 the instructions of a very inferior master in the 

 country, who qualified him for the situation of a 

 scene-painter at the Parisian opera. The genius 

 of Watteau, however, soon carried him beyond 

 that lowly sphere ; and at length, without any fur- 

 ther assistance, he produced a picture which gained 

 the prize at the academy. The king, whose notice 

 his performance had attracted, settled a pension 

 on him, for the purpose of enabling him to com- 

 plete his study of the art in Italy. The oppor- 

 tunities he enjoyed at Rome, and the intimate ac- 

 quaintance he formed with some of the best works 

 of Rubens and Vandyck, whose style he afterwards 

 more especially imitated, rescued him entirely from 

 the disadvantages which his early penury had 

 thrown in his way, and obtained him a great repu- 

 tation, particularly for his conversational pieces, in 

 which his heads and the attitudes of his figures are 

 highly admired. From Rome he went to England ; 

 but the incessant application with which he devot- 

 ed himself to his easel had already begun to make 

 formidable inroads on a constitution naturally weak ; 

 and, although he succeeded in returning to France, 

 he did not long survive, dying at Nogent,'in the 

 neighbourhood of the capital, in 1721. 



WAT TEL. See Vattel. . 



WATTS, ISAAC, an English non-conformist di- 

 vine, eminently distinguished for his learning and 

 piety, was born at Southampton, in 1674, and, 

 after being educated there, under a clergyman of 

 the established church, removed, at the age of six- 

 teen, to an academy for dissenters, in London. 

 After pursuing his studies five years with great 

 credit and advantage, he returned to Southampton, 

 and remained two years at home, employed in the 

 further cultivation of his talents. In 1696, he be- 

 came tutor to the son of Sir John Hartopp, at Stoke 

 Newington, near London, and, in 1702, succeeded 

 doctor Isaac Chauncey, (to whom he had previous- 

 ly been assistant), as minister of a dissenting con- 

 gregation in the metropolis. An attack of fever, 

 in 1712, obliged him to relinquish for a time his 

 pastoral duties, when he obtained an asylum at the 



