ders
of Malbranche and Locke; he has left neither corporeal nor spiritual
nature unexamined; he has taught the art of reasoning, and the
science of the stars.

His character, therefore, must be formed from the multiplicity
and diversity of his attainments, rather than from any single
performance; for it would not be safe to claim for him the highest
rank in any single denomination of literary dignity; yet perhaps
there was nothing in which he would not have excelled, if he had
not divided his powers to different pursuits.

As a poet, had he been only a poet, he would probably have stood
high among the authors with whom he is now associated. For his
judgement was exact, and he noted beauties and faults with very
nice discernment; his imagination, as the _Dacian Battle_ proves,
was vigorous and active, and the stores of knowledge were large
by which his fancy was to be supplied. His ear was well-tuned, and
his diction was elegant and copious. But his devotional poetry is,
like that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topics
enforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matter
rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient
for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done
well.

His poems on other subjects seldom rise higher than might be
expected from the amusements of a Man of Letters, and have different
degrees of value as they are more or less laboured, or as the
occasion was more or less favourable to invention.

He writes too often without regular measures, and too often in
blank verse; the rhymes are not always sufficiently correspondent.
He is particularly unhappy in coining names expressive of characters.
His lines are commonly smooth and easy, and his thoughts always
religiously pure; but who is there that, to so much piety and
innocence, does not wish for a greater measure of sprightliness
and vigour? He is at least one of the few poets with whom youth
and ignorance may be safely pleased; and happy will be that reader
whose mind is disposed by his verses, or his prose, to imitate him
in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to man, and
his reverence to God.

PREFACE.

THE following extract from the Doctor's Preface, as it contains
the plan of his version of the Psalms, may be found useful:

"I come therefore to explain my own design, which is this, To
accommodate the book of Psalms to Christian worship. And in order
to do this, it is ne