Lord Barrington instantly produced a passage to that effect, when the disconcerted sceptic seized his hat and hastily retreated from the company. Upon another occasion his lordship inquired how it was that although he professed to have no religion himself, he was so careful that his servants should attend regularly at church, when he replied he did this to prevent them robbing and murdering him. This amiable nobleman, moderate, wise, and well informed, if we may not rather speak of him as a man of extensive and varied scholarship, was such a one as could well appreciate and sympathize with Isaac Watts. At the old house at Tofts, or Beckets, in Berkshire, where Lord Barrington died, we may be sure that Watts was a frequent visitor, and it was the frequency of the intercourse probably which permits us so few letters between them, and of those letters none before 1718. We have already quoted the high estimate he formed of Watts’ “View of Scripture History;” his estimate of the “Logic” he rates so highly that he says, “I shall not only recommend it to others, but use it as the best manual of its kind myself, and I intend, as some have done Erasmus or a piece of Cicero, to read it over once a year.” The following note sets every point of his friendship with Watts in a very pleasing light: “LONDON, _Jan. 11, 1718_. “REV. SIR, “I cannot dispense with myself from taking the first opportunity I have of acknowledging your great favour in assisting me so readily to offer up the praise due to Almighty God for His signal mercies vouchsafed me on three several occasions, and of assuring you that it was with the utmost concern I understood that I must not flatter myself with the hopes of your being with us in this last. But how very obliging are you, who would give yourself the trouble to let me know that, though you could not give me the advantage of your company at Hatton Garden, yet I should not want your assistance at a distance, where you would address such petitions to heaven to meet ours as tend to render me one of the best and happiest men alive. This they will influence to me in some measure, both by their prevalency at the throne of grace, and by instructing me in the most agreeable manner what I should aspire to. Whilst I read your letter, I found my blood fired with the greatest ambition to be what you wish me. I will, therefore, carefully preserve it, where it shall be least liable to accidents, and where it will be always most in my view. There, as I shall see what I ought to be, by keeping it always before me, I shall not only have the pleasure of observing the masterly strokes of the character you wish me, but, I hope, come in time to bear some resemblance to it. Whilst you were praying for us, we did not forget you; nor shall I cease to beseech Almighty God to make you a bright