ADVERTISEMENT. IN the following MEMOIR of DR. WATTS, the theological opinions of that celebrated person are discussed at considerable length, and his character as a man and a Christian is pleasingly and amply portrayed; his learned biographer, however, is nearly silent respecting the Doctor's claims to attention as a poet. For the few remarks on this point, which he has introduced, the Laureate is chiefly indebted to Johnson; there are few readers who would not rather, on such a topic, have been favoured with his own. Whatever may have been Dr. Southey's reasons for passing so hastily over this portion of his subject, it is chiefly with the produce of its poetical vein that the genius of Watts has purchased its remarkably vivacious popularity; nor is it flattering to the worth of an extensive reputation, to dismiss the poetic character of a writer whose verse has softened the hearts of thousands, and animated many to the pursuit of holiness and virtue, with the negative praise of good intention. That the poems of the admired nonconformist are pious in design, and pure in language, is |