Isaac Watts; his life and writings, his homes and friends — John Shaqi
Isaac Watts; his life and writings, his homes and friendsHood, Edwin Paxton
Religion
Isaac Watts; his life and writings, his homes and friends
Hood, Edwin Paxton
Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748
There was another plan which reveals the careful student, and to which
Dr. Gibbons refers in his life: “There was another method also which
the doctor adopted, it may be in the time of his preparatory studies,
though of this we are not able to furnish positive evidence, but of which
there is the fullest proof in his further progress of life, namely, that
of interleaving the works of authors, and inserting in the blank pages
additions from other writers on the same subject. I have now by me, the
gift of his brother Mr. Enoch Watts, the ‘Westminster Greek Grammar’
thus interleaved by the doctor, with all he thought proper to collect
from Dr. Busby’s and Mr. Teed’s ‘Greek Grammars,’ engrafted by him into
the supplemental leaves; and I have besides in my possession a present
from the doctor himself, a printed discourse by a considerable writer,
on a controverted point in divinity, interleaved in the same manner, and
much enlarged by insertions in the doctor’s own hand.” Certainly from
hints such as these no writer could seem by his own careful diligence to
be more admirably prepared to write to and counsel young men and others
concerning the improvement of the mind.
Most of the biographers of Watts have referred to his fellow-students.
Several of them were interesting men. “The first genius in the academy,”
to adopt Watts’ own descriptive designation, was Mr. Josiah Hart;
but very speedily after his removal from Mr. Rowe he conformed, and
became chaplain to John Hampden, Esq., the member for Buckinghamshire.
Presently after he became chaplain to his grace the Duke of Bolton, Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland. Such offices furnished very easy opportunities for
advancement in the Church. Before long he became Bishop of Kilmore and
Ardagh; and in 1742 he was translated to the archbishopric of Tuam, with
which was united the bishopric of Enaghdoen, with liberty to retain his
former see of Ardagh; yet he retained friendly relationships with his
old fellow-student, and in the “Lyrics” occurs a free translation of an
epigram of Martial to Cirinus, which seems to intimate that he was not
wanting himself in poetic inspiration:
So smooth your numbers, friend, your verse so sweet,
So sharp the jest, and yet the turn so neat,
That with her Martial, Rome would place Cirine,
Rome would prefer your sense and thought to mine.
Yet modest you decline the public stage,
To fix your friend alone amidst th’ applauding age.
Fifty years after the period of their life as fellow-students we find
the Archbishop writing to Watts, “God grant we may be useful while we
live, and may run clear and with unclouded minds till we come to the very
dregs! I send you my visitation charge to my clergy of Tuam. I submit it
to your judgment. Your old friend and affectionate servant, JOSIAH TUAM.”
If in some part singularly expressed, it gives a not unpleasing idea of
the writer’s character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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