MEMOIRS OF DR.''WÂITS. XIX Where for some peculiar considerations it might be most naturally expected, brit, through the amiable candour of some excellent men and accomplished tutors; in our English universities too, And that hewas also teaching hun- dreds of ministersand private christians by his sermons, and other theological tracts; sohappily calculated to diffuse through theirminds that light of know-' ledge, and through their hearts that fervourof piety, which God had been pleased to enkindle in his own. And as to my certain knowledge your com- positions have been the singular comfort of many excellent christians on their dying beds, for I have beard stanzas of them repeatedfrom the bpsof several, who were doubtless iná few hours tobegin the song of Moses and the Lamb, so I hopeand trust, that, when God shàll call you tothat salvation for which your faith and patience have so long been waiting; he will shed around you the choicest beams of his favour, and gladden your heart with consolations _. like those which you have been the happy instrument of administering to others." Dr. Johnson, whom no one here will suspect of partiality, and whose decisions in such case no one will dispute, acknowledges that few books bad been perused by him with greater pleasure, than Watts's Improvement of the Mind, of which ire says, " the radical principles may indeed be found in Locke's Conduct of the Understanding, but they are so expanded and rami- fied by Watts, as to confer upon him the merit of a work in the highest degree useful and pleasing. Whoever has the care of instructing others may be charged withdeficience in his duty if this book be not recommended." Of his Logic, which soon obtained Considerable celebrity at home and abroad, Lord Barrington speaks in the following terms of high encomium : " I returned you my thanks for the kind presentof your Logic soon after I received it. I can now do it on much better grounds, for since I have read it, I do not barely thank you for the civility, or the satisfaction I have received on reading a book finely written on a noble and useful subject, or for the profit I have reaped by it, but for a book, by which, I expect, not onlythe youth of England, but all, who are not too lazy, or too wise to learn, will be taught to think and write better than they do, and thereby become better subjects, better neighbours, better relatives, and better christians ; for as wrong reasoning helps to spoil each of these, so far will putting us in a right way of thinking, help to mend us. I think your book so good an help to us this way, that I shall not only recommend it to others, but use it as a manual of its kind myself, and intend, as some have done Erasmus or a piece of Cicero, for another purpose to read it over oncea year." The authorof the Meditations among theTombs, and the Dialogues bey tween Theron and Aspasio, in a letter of acknowledgment for the present of his discourses on theglory of Christ, says " To say your works have long been my delight and study, the favourite pattern by which I would fòrrn my conduct and model my style, would only be to echo back in the faintest accents what sounds in the general voice of the nation. Among others of your edifying compositions,I have reason tothank you for your sacred songs, which I have introduced into the service ofmy church ; so that, in the solem . pities ofthe Sabbath, and ina lectureon the week day, your muse lights up the incense bf our praise, and furnishes our devotion with harmony." The Countess- of Hertford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, writes to VOL. 1. C
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