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WATTS, ISAAC (1674-1748)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 423 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WATTS, See also:ISAAC (1674-1748) , See also:English theologian and hymn writer, son of a See also:clothier, was See also:born at See also:Southampton on the 17th of See also:July 1674. The See also:father, who afterwards had a boarding-school at Southampton, also wrote See also:poetry, and a number of his pieces were included by See also:mistake in vol. i. of the son's See also:Posthumous See also:Works. Isaac Watts is stated to have begun to learn Latin when only in his fifth See also:year, and at the See also:age of seven cr eight to have composed some devotional pieces to please his See also:mother. His See also:nonconformity precluded him from entering either of the See also:universities, but in his sixteenth year he went to study at the See also:nonconformist See also:academy at Stoke Newington, of which the Rev. See also:Thomas Rowe, See also:minister of the See also:Independent See also:meeting at Girdlers' See also:Hall, was then See also:president. On leaving the academy he spent more than two years at See also:home, and began to write his See also:hymns, but in the autumn of 1696 he became See also:tutor in the See also:family of See also:Sir See also:John Hartopp at Stoke Newington, where he probably prepared the materials of his two educational works—Logick, or the Right Use of See also:Reason in the Enquiry after Truth (1725), and The Know-ledge of the Heavens and the See also:Earth made easy, or the First Principles of See also:Geography and See also:Astronomy Explained (1726). In his twenty-See also:fourth year Watts was chosen assistant to Dr Isaac See also:Chauncy (1632-1712), pastor of the Independent See also:congregation in See also:Mark See also:Lane, See also:London, and two years later he succeeded as See also:sole pastor. The See also:state of his See also:health, which he had injured by overwork, led to the See also:appointment of an assistant in 1703. In 1704 the congregation removed to Pinner's Hall, and in 1708 they built a new meeting-See also:house in See also:Bury See also:Street. In 1712 Watts was attacked by See also:fever, which incapacitated him for four years from the performance of his duties. In 1712 he went to live with Sir Thomas Abney of Abney See also:Park, where he spent the See also:remainder of his See also:life, the arrangement being continued by See also:Lady Abney after her See also:husband's See also:death. Watts preached only occasionally, devoting his leisure chiefly to the See also:writing of hymns (see HYMNS), the preparation of his sermons for publication, and the See also:composition of theological See also:work.

In 1706 appeared his Horae Lyricae, of which an edition with memoir by See also:

Robert See also:Southey forms vol. ix. of Sacred See also:Classics (1834); in 1707 a See also:volume of Hymns; in 1719 The See also:Psalms of See also:David; and in 1720 Divine and Moral Songs for See also:Children. His Psalms are See also:free paraphrases, rather than metrical versions, and some of them (" 0 See also:God, our help in ages past," for instance) are amongst the most famous hymns in the See also:language. His religious opinions were more liberal in See also:tone than was at that See also:time See also:common in the community to which he belonged; his views regarding See also:Sunday recreation and labour were scarcely of puritanical strictness; and his Calvinism was modified by his rejection of the See also:doctrine of reprobation. He did not hold the doctrine of the Trinity as necessary to salvation, and he wrote several works on the subject in which he See also:developed views not far removed from Arianism. He died on the 25th of See also:November 1748, and was buried at Bunhill See also:Fields, where a tombstone was erected to his memory by Sir John Hartopp and Lady Abney. A memorial was also erected to him in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, and a memorial hall, erected in his See also:honour at Southampton, was opened in 1875. Among the theological See also:treatises of Watts, in addition to volumes of sermons, are Doctrine of the Trinity (1722); Discourses on the Love of God and its See also:Influence on all the Passions (1729) ; Catechisms for Children and Youth (1730) ; Essays towards a See also:Proof of a See also:Separate State for Souls (1732); See also:Essay on the Freedom of the Will (1732); Essay on the Strength and Weakness of Human Reason (1737) ; Essay on the Ruin and Recovery of Mankind (1740); See also:Glory of See also:Christ as God-See also:Man Unveiled (1746); and Useful and Important Questions concerning Jesus, the Son of God (1746). He was also the author of a variety of See also:miscellaneous treatises. His Posthumous Works appeared in 1773, and a further See also:instalment of them in 1779. The Works of. . Issac Watts (6 vols.), edited by Dr Jennings and Dr See also:Doddridge, with a memoir compiled by G. See also:Burder, appeared in 1810-1811.

His poetical works were included in See also:

Johnson's English Poets, where they were accompanied by a Life, and they appear in subsequent similar collections. See also The Life, Times and See also:Correspondence of Isaac Watts (1834) by Thomas See also:Milner. WATTS-See also:DUNTON, See also:WALTER See also:THEODORE (1832- English man of letters, was born at St Ives, See also:Huntingdon, on the 12th of See also:October 1832, his family surname being Watts, to which he added in 1897 his mother's name of Dunton. He was originally educated as a naturalist, and saw much of the See also:East Anglian gypsies, of whose superstitions and folk-See also:lore he made careful study. Abandoning natural See also:history .for the See also:law, he qualified as a See also:solicitor and went to London, where he practised for some years, giving his spare time to his chosen pursuit of literature. He contributed regularly to the Examiner from 1874 and to the See also:Athenaeum from 1875 until 1898, being for more than twenty years the See also:principal critic of poetry in the latter See also:journal. His See also:article on " Poetry " in the ninth edition of the Ency. Brit. (vol. xix., 1885) was the principal expression of his views on the first principles of the subject, and did much to increase his reputation, which was maintained by other articles he wrote for the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica and for the See also:chief See also:periodicals and reviews. Mr Watts-Dunton had considerable influence as the friend of many of the leading men of letters of his time; he enjoyed the confidence of See also:Tennyson, and contributed an appreciation of him to the authorized See also:biography. He was in later years See also:Rossetti's most intimate friend. He was the bosom friend of See also:Swinburne (q.v.), who shared his home for nearly See also:thirty years before he died in 1909.

The obituary notices and appreciations of the poets of the time, which he contributed to the Athenaeum and other periodicals, See also:

bore testimony to his sympathy, insight and See also:critical acumen. It was not, however, until 1897 that he published a volume under his own name, this being his collection of poems called The Coming of Love, portions of which he had printed in periodicals from time to time. In the following year his See also:prose See also:romance Aylwin attained immediate success, and ran through many See also:editions in the course of a few months. Both The Coming of Love and Aylwin set forth, the one in poetry, the other in prose, the romantic and passionate associations of Romany life, and maintain the traditions of See also:Borrow, whom Mr Watts-Dunton had known well in his own See also:early days. Imaginative glamour and See also:mysticism are their prominent characteristics, and the novel in particular has had its See also:share in restoring the charms of pure romance to the favour of the See also:general public. He edited See also:George Borrow's Lavengro (1893) and Romany See also:Rye (1900); in 1903 he published The Renascence of Wonder, a See also:treatise on the romantic See also:movement; and his Studies of See also:Shakespeare appeared in 1910. But it was not only in his 'published work that Mr Watts-Dunton's influence on the See also:literary life of his time was potent. His See also:long and intimate association with Rossetti and Swinburne made him, no doubt, a unique figure in the See also:world of letters; but his own grasp of metrical principle and of the historic See also:perspective of the glories of English poetry made him, among the younger See also:generation, the embodiment of a See also:great tradition of literary See also:criticism which could never cease to command respect. In 1905 he married. His life has been essentially one of devotion to letters, faithfully and disinterestedly followed.

End of Article: WATTS, ISAAC (1674-1748)

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