WATT S.

THE Poems of Dr. WATTS were by my recom

mendation inferted in the late Collection; the readers of which are to impute to me whatever pleasure or wearinefs they may find in the perufal of Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden.

ISAAC WATTS was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton, when his father, of the fame name, kept a boarding-school for young gentlemen, though common report makes him a fhoemaker. He appears, from the narrative of Dr. Gibbons, to have been neither indigent nor illiterate.

Ifaac, the eldeft of nine children, was given to books from his infancy; and began, we are told, to learn Latin when he was four years old, I fuppofe, at home. He was afterwards taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, by Mr. Pinhorn, a clergyman, master of the Free-school at Southampton, to whom the gratitude of his fcholar afterwards infcribed a Latin ode.

His proficiency at school was fo confpicuous, that a fubscription was propofed for his fupport at the University; but he declared his refolution of taking his lot with the Diffenters. Such he was as every Christian Church would rejoice to have adopted.

He therefore repaired, in 1690, to an academy taught by Mr. Rowe, where he had for his companions and fellow-ftudents Mr. Hughes the poet, and Dr. Horte, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam. Some Latin Effays, fuppofed to have been written as exercises at this academy, fhew a degree of knowledge, both philofophical and theological, fuch as very few attain by a much longer courfe of study.

He was, as he hints in his Mifcellanies, a maker of verfes from fifteen to fifty, and in his youth he appears to have paid attention to Latin poetry. His verfes to his brother, in the glyconick meafure, written when he was feventeen, are remarkably eafy and elegant. Some of his other odes are deformed by the Pindarick folly then prevailing, and are written with fuch neglect of all metrical rules as is without example among the ancients; but his diction, though perhaps not always exactly pure, has fuch copioufnefs and splendour, as fhews that he was but a very little diftance from excellence.

His method of ftudy was to imprefs the contents of his books upon his memory by abridging them, and by interleaving them to amplify one fyftem with fupplements from another.

With the congregation of his tutor Mr. Rowe, who were, I believe, Independents, he communicated in his nineteenth year.

At the age of twenty he left the academy, and spent two years in ftudy and devotion at the house of his father, who treated him with great tenderness; and had the happiness, indulged to few parents, of living to fee his fon eminent for literature, and venerable for piety.

He was then entertained by Sir John Hartopp fiye years, as domeftick tutor to his fon and in that time particularly devoted himself to the ftudy of the Holy Scriptures; and, being chofen affiftant to Dr. Chauncey, preached the first time on the birth-day that completed his twenty-fourth year; probably confidering that as the day of a fecond nativity, by which he entered on a new period of existence.

In about three years he fucceeded Dr. Chauncey ; but, foon after his entrance on his charge, he was feized by a dangerous illness, which funk him to fuch weakness, that the congregation thought an affiftant neceffary, and appointed Mr. Price. His health then returned gradually; and he performed his duty till (1712) he was feized by a fever of such violence and continuance, that from the feebleness which it brought upon him he never perfectly recovered.

This calamitous ftate made the compaffion of his friends neceffary, and drew upon him the attention of Sir Thomas Abney, who received him into his house; where, with a conftancy of friendship and uniformity of conduct not often to be found, he was treated for thirty-fix years with all the kindness that friendship could prompt, and all the attention that refpect could dictate. Sir Thomas died about eight years afterwards; but he continued with the lady

and her daughters to the end of his life. The lady died about a year after him.

A coalition like this, a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits, deferves a particular memorial; and I will not withhold from the reader Dr. Gibbons's reprefentation, to which regard is to be paid, as to the narrative of one who writes what he knows, and what is known likewife to multitudes befides.

"Our next obfervation fhall be made upon that "remarkably kind Providence which brought the "Doctor into Sir Thomas Abney's family, and con"tinued him there till his death, a period of no

less than thirty-fix years. In the midst of his "facred labours for the glory of God, and good of "his generation, he is feized with a moft violent and "threatening fever, which leaves him oppreffed with great weakness, and puts a ftop at least to his publick fervices for four years. In this diftreffing season, doubly fo to his active and pious fpirit, he is invited to Sir Thomas Abney's family, nor ever re"moves from it till he had finished his days. Here " he enjoyed the uninterrupted demonftrations of the "trueft friendship. Here, without any care of his "own, he had every thing which could contribute

to the enjoyment of life, and favour the unwearied purfuits of his ftudies. Here he dwelt in a family, which for piety, order, harmony, and every vir❝tue, was an houfe of God. Here he had the privilege of a country recefs, the fragrant bower, the fpreading lawn, the flowery garden, and other adVOL. III. "vantages,

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vantages, to footh his mind and aid his reftoration to health; to yield him, whenever he chose them, moft grateful intervals from his laborious studies, " and enable him to return to them with redoubled "vigour and delight. Had it not been for this moft happy event, he might, as to outward view, have feebly, it may be painfully, dragged on through many more years of languor, and inability for pub"lick fervice, and even for profitable study, or per

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haps might have funk into his grave under the "overwhelming load of infirmities in the midst of "his days; and thus the church and world would "have been deprived of those many excellent fermons "and works, which he drew up and published du

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ring his long refidence in this family. In a few 66 years after his coming hither, Sir Thomas Abney "dies; but his amiable confort furvives, who shews "the Doctor the fame refpect and friendship as be"fore, and moft happily for him and great numbers " befides; for, as her riches were great, her genero

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fity and munificence were in full proportion; her "thread of life was drawn out to a great age, even "beyond that of the Doctor's; and thus this excel"lent man, through her kindnefs, and that of her daughter, the prefent Mrs. Elizabeth Abney, who "in a like degree efteemed and honoured him, enjoyed all the benefits and felicities he expe"rienced at his firft entrance into this family, till his "days were numbered and finished; and, like a fhock of corn in its feason, he afcended into "the regions of perfect and immortal life and joy."

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