ISAAC WATTS. BORN, 1674; DIED, 1748. "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?"-Text of the Rev. C. Ashworth's funeral sermon on the death of Dr. Watts. ISAAC WATTS is one of those authors whose works cannot be read without improving the mind and bettering the heart; and whose life cannot be studied without awakening a love of virtue, and a reverence for pure religion. He was a pious and learned dissenting minister, who suffered severely for his firm and sincere attachment to his religious opinions. His father kept a respectable boarding school at Southampton, where the subject of this sketch was born, in 1674. He was the eldest of nine children, and gave indications of his love of knowledge, and of his superior abilities, at a very early period of his life. "We are told," says Willmott, in the interesting account he has given of him in his "Lives of the Sacred Poets," "that even before he could speak plain, his constant exclamation, when any money was given to him, was, a book!-a book! -buy a book!" It was the practice of his mother, after school hours, to propose to the pupils a subject for the exercise of their rhyming talents; and the successful candidate was rewarded with the encouraging prize of a farthing. On one of these occasions little Isaac produced the following couplet : I write, not for a farthing, but to try When he was not more than seven or eight years old, he wrote an acrostic on his own name; and in his fourteenth year, he commenced the study of the learned languages. At the age of sixteen his precocious abilities had attracted general notice, and it was proposed to raise a subscription for the completion of his studies at one of the Universities. The noble youth, however, resolved to adhere to the tenets of his forefathers, and respectfully declined the benevolent offer. He was accordingly placed in an academy in London, attended principally by the children of Dissenters, where he pursued his studies with such unremitting industry as to impair his health. He composed Latin exercises while he resided in this academy, which have received a warm eulogium from the pen of Dr. Johnson. In 1694 he left it, respected for his virtues and acquirements, and returned to his father's house. He passed two years there, spending his time in the further cultivation of his mind, and in writing his hymns and other religious works. At the expiration of that period, he accepted in 1696 the situation of private tutor to the son of Sir John Hartopp, at Stoke, Newington. Watts always looked back with pleasure to the five happy years he spent in Sir John's family. When engaged in the laborious duties of teaching, he states that he was instructing himself. It was to assist and benefit his pupil, that he prepared the outline of his celebrated treatise on Logic; which, when published, gave him so high a reputation as a philosophical writer. From his entrance into the Rev. Thomas Rowe's academy, he had been preparing himself for the ministry; and in 1698, having completed his twenty-fourth year, he preached his first sermon. On the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Chauney from his pastoral charge as the clergyman of a dissenting congregation in London, in connexion with the Independents, Watts succeeded him in 1702; but had not discharged the duties of his sacred office for more than a year, when he was attacked by a serious and dangerous illness, which obliged him to relinquish his post. He continued, however, to write at intervals, and some of his most touching poetry was composed during the period of that severe indisposition. His health continuing to decline, he met with a kind and generous benefactor in Sir Thomas Abney, who, sympathizing in his afflictions, and esteeming him for his piety and goodness, offered him an asylum in his own house, where he remained, with every thing that could contribute to his comfort, for a period of thirtyeight years. Gibbon says, "Here, without any care of his own, he had every thing which could contribute to the enjoyment of life, and favour the pursuit of his studies. Here he dwelt in a family which, for piety, order, harmony, and every virtue, was a house of God. Here he had the privilege of a country recess, the fragrant bower, the spreading lawn, the flowery garden, and other advantages to soothe his mind, and promote his restoration to health; to yield him, whenever he chose them, most grateful intervals from his laborious studies, and enable him to return to them with redoubled vigour and delight." In Sir Thomas Abney died eight years after Watts went to reside with him; but the same benevolent arrangement was permitted by the widow to continue. this calm and agreeable retreat our author passed the remainder of his days, and prepared for the press the best of his works: his " Logic," "Improvement of the Mind," "Sermons," "Prayers," "Essays," and "Divine Poems"-all designed and tending to promote the glory of God, and the benefit of the human race. In consequence of the excellence and utility of his numerous works, he received diplomas of Doctor of Divinity from the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Of the closing hours of his life some interesting notices are preserved, and which have appeared in various biographical sketches. He died with the resignation of a good Christian, and in the hope of a blessed immortality, on the 25th of November, 1748. At his own request, he was interred in the burial-ground of Bunhill Fields. His pupil, Sir John Hartopp, and Lady Abney, erected a monument to his memory, on which a simple epitaph, written by himself, was engraved. His private character was a model for imitation, and has been drawn by Dr. Johnson, in his "Lives of the Poets," in language not less forcible than just. Of Dr. Watts' theological tenets it would be incompatible with the object of the present work to pronounce any opinion; but in reviewing his personal history, it is impossible not to perceive, that religion was with him something more than a hollow profession. Its fruits were developed in his good works, in his comprehensive charity, and love to all mankind. "I have mentioned," says his biographer above referred to, "his treatises of theology as distine from his other productions; but the truth is, that whatever he took in hand was, by his incessant solicitude for souls, converted to theology. As piety predominated in his mind, it is diffused over his works. Under his direction, it may be truly said, philosophy is subservient to philosophical instruction; it is difficult to read a page without learning, or at least wishing, to be better. The attention is caught by indirect instruction, and he that sat down only to reason, is on a sudden compelled to pray." The same eminent writer thus speaks of Watts' laudable efforts to promote the improvement of the poor: "By his natural temper he was quick of resentment; but, by his established and habitual practice, he was gentle, modest, and inoffensive. His tenderness appeared in his attention to children, and to the poor. To the poor, while he lived in the family of his friend, he allowed the third part of his annual revenue, though the whole was not a hundred a year; and for 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. Every man acquainted with the common principles of human action, will look with veneration on the writer, who is at one time combating Locke, and at another time making a catechism for children in their fourth year." A more recent author, the accomplished editor of the "Book of Gems," expresses his opinion of Dr. Watts' "Divine Songs for Children" in the following emphatic terms:-"Children lisp his verses long before they even read them the moral fixes upon the mind through the imagination, and is retained for life. The 'Divine Songs' are neither too high, nor what is less easy of attainment, too low for the comprehension of a child, and they tempt perusal and thought by the graces of every rhyme. They are simple without being weak; and they reason without being argumentative. They are indeed the most perfect examples in our language of the achievement of that which a writer desires to achieve. We regard Dr. Watts, therefore, as one of the greatest benefactors of human kind; and may search in vain through the thousand tombs of our poets for so many golden verses as we find in those 'Divine Songs for Children.' Mr. Willmott has observed, in reference to the same simple compositions:-"In this manner has this amiable poet obtained for himself a place in our hearts among the most cherished remembrances of childhood. The bee, that hums by us on the summer grass, recalls him to the memory; and we cannot think upon our mothers without recollecting Watts." The memoir of this popular author by Southey is peculiarly interesting. He who composed the lives of the pious Wesley and the brave Nelson, could scarcely produce a biography that did not possess more than ordinary merit. Among the numerous epitomes of Watts' life, the full and interesting sketch in "The Penny Cyclopedia" gives the best account of his voluminous works. The author pronounces the following encomium on the beneficial effects of his services to literature, morality, and education:-"Watts," says he, "is a classic of the people. His hymns for children have exercised an influence on the minds of the young far beyond the limits of the dissenting body. His 'Logic' was once a text book in various places of education. He was in his day one of the most zealous advocates of the principles which placed the house of Hanover on the throne. In his pamphlet in defence of the dissenting charity schools, he was the efficient precursor of those friends of popular instruction who gave, at a later period, their countenance and sup port to Joseph Lancaster, to whom the cause of the edu cation of the poor is so deeply indebted; and his theological writings are prized by almost the whole religious public of Great Britain. Wherever the English language is spoken, Isaac Watts will be found to have exercised no slender influence in the formation of public opinion, His writings have contributed much to keep alive the spirit of freedom, toleration, and piety." |