surely an eulogium inadequate to his merits. The ardour of Dr. Watts's devotional feelings sometimes carried him into the region of true poetry, the imagery of which his intellectual acuteness enabled him distinctly to contemplate, and his practised skill as a writer clearly to note down. The ODE ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, (page 44,) may be instanced, as one among many pieces in the present volume, in which a powerful fancy, as well as a felicitous diction, is made subservient to the cause of religion. The public estimate of Dr. Watts, in his character of a poet, rests chiefly on his Hymns. The reader needs only, however, to have perused the stanzas above referred to, or any one of those numerous other Lyrics now before him, by which they are equalled or perhaps excelled, to perceive that this writer has claims to a higher place among English poets, than would be justly due to him merely as the author of those favourite but often feeble compositions. In a period like ours, there would appear to be no sufficient reason, why the superior intellectual value of the present collection should prevent its rivalling the Hymns in extent of popularity-a circumstance to be desired by all who seek the advancement of virtue and piety.-Such are the considerations which have induced the publisher to undertake the present Edition. It must indeed be admitted that Watts has no claim to he called a great poet. Yet his title to the reputation at tached to his name would have appeared much less equivocal to fastidious judgments, but for the wilful carelessness and inequality of his compositions. Many of the pieces included in the Hora Lyricæ are effusions of the Author's youth, abounding in the faults as well as the excellencies of young writers of genius: it is to be lamented, that when he resolved to give them to the world, he was either too indifferent or too self-indulgent to bestow on them that correction which they required, and would have repaid. The publisher of this Edition hopes to be acquitted of presumption, if in preparing it for the press, he has in some degree attempted to remedy that neglect. Several poems which have a place in former Editions, he has wholly omitted. He has also struck out from those which are retained, various passages, differing in length from several stanzas or paragraphs, to a single line, which, it appeared to him, would, in the present day, impede the favourable reception, and consequently impair the usefulness, of the work. This liberty of omission has been more especially used in the second book, for reasons which are explained in the note, page 66. A larger stretch of that editorial authority which he considered himself free to employ for the benefit, as he judged it, of the reader, remains to be mentioned: viz. the change, in a very few instances, of a word or phrase, for the purpose of avoiding expressions too coarse for modern taste, or in order to correct a solecism in grammar. The Supplement containing translations of the Latin poems, has been entirely omitted. Some specimens of the Latin poems themselves are, nevertheless, preserved for the gratification of learned readers; who will find them by no means. less free in style, less spirited and poetical, than their companions in the vernacular tongue. The subordinate labour of punctuation, hitherto wholly neglected, has been carefully performed. Respecting the general typographical appearance of the work, it is unnecessary to speak. In short, it has been the endeavour of the publisher to furnish the public with an Edition of the SELECT LYRIC POEMS of DR. WATTS, every way worthy of their patronage and of the Author's fame.. |