an account of six-and-thirty years, and those the years of Dr.
Watts.

From the time of his reception into this family his life was no
otherwise diversified than by successive publications. The series of his
works I am not able to deduce; their number and their variety show the
intenseness of his industry and the extent of his capacity. He was one
of the first authors that taught the Dissenters to court attention by
the graces of language. Whatever they had among them before, whether of
learning or acuteness, was commonly obscured and blunted by coarseness
and inelegance of style. He showed them that zeal and purity might be
expressed and enforced by polished diction. He continued to the end of
his life a teacher of a congregation, and no reader of his works can
doubt his fidelity or diligence. In the pulpit, though his low stature,
which very little exceeded five feet, graced him with no advantages
of appearance, yet the gravity and propriety of his utterance made his
discourses very efficacious. I once mentioned the reputation which Mr.
Foster had gained by his proper delivery, to my friend Dr. Hawkesworth,
who told me that in the art of pronunciation he was far inferior to
Dr. Watts. Such was his flow of thoughts, and such his promptitude of
language, that in the latter part of his life he did not precompose his
cursory sermons, but, having adjusted the heads and sketched out some
particulars, trusted for success to his extemporary powers. He did not
endeavour to assist his eloquence by any gesticulations; for, as no
corporeal actions have any correspondence with theological truth, he
did not see how they could enforce it. At the conclusion of weighty
sentences he gave time, by a short pause, for the proper impression.

To stated and public instruction he added familiar visits and personal
application, and was careful to improve the opportunities which
conversation offered of diffusing and increasing the influence of
religion. By his natural temper he was quick of resentment; but by
his established and habitual practice he was gentle, modest, and
inoffensive. His tenderness appeared in his attention to children, and
to the poor. To the poor, while he lived in the family of his friend, he
allowed the third part of his annual revenue; though the whole was not
a hundred a year; and for children he condescended to lay aside
the scholar, the philosopher, and the wit, to write little poems
of devotion, and systems of ins