September, 1918.
DIVINE
SONGS
Attempted in Easy Language
for the Use of
CHILDREN.
By _I. WATTS_.
_Out of the Mouth of Babes and
Sucklings thou hast perfected
Praise._ Matt. xxi. 16.
_LONDON_:
Printed for _M. Lawrence_ at the Angel
in the _Poultry_. 1715.
_The Divine and Moral Songs of Isaac Watts_
If the _New England Primer_ was the “little Bible” of New England,
Dr. Watts’s _Divine and Moral Songs_ has a worthy place beside it
as the “little Hymn-book”, not only of New England, but of old
England as well. These two juveniles appeared in close sequence and
for nearly one hundred and fifty years jointly contributed to the
infant joys, and doubtless sorrows, of our sturdy ancestors. Even
to-day well-nigh everyone is familiar with “Let dogs delight to bark
and bite” and “How doth the little busy bee improve each shining
hour”; but alas, ’tis rarely that a knowledge of their authorship is
associated with a knowledge of the rhymes.
When these two little books were in vogue the principal object in
teaching children to read was to open to them the advantages of the
Christian religion. Therefore the children’s first essay, after
learning their letters, was to acquire a knowledge of the Scriptures
and the characters therein portrayed. In the _Primer_ the rhymed
alphabet began with “In Adam’s fall we sinnèd all” and ended with
“Zaccheus he, did climb a tree, his Lord to see”, each illustrated
with a thrilling wood-cut. The _Divine Songs_ opens with a “General
hymn of praise” and closes with the cradle hymn “Hush, my dear, lie
still and slumber”, all calculated to inculcate grace and wisdom.
Before the middle of the nineteenth century modern influences toward
secularization in education crowded the _New England Primer_ into
oblivion, and it has survived only on the shelves of collectors and
in a few reprints as a curiosity of bygone days. The _Divine Songs_
has fared better, as it is still kept in print by one or two of our
publishing concerns, and several beautiful, illustrated editions
have been issued in very recent years. The _New England Primer_ has
long been considered as having the highest record of editions and
quantity published of any of the old juveniles, but I am convinced
that it must yield first place to the _Divine Songs_. There are of
record about three hundred and fifty editions of the _Primer_, but
I have been able to gather about two hundred and fifty editions of
the _Divine Songs_ in the British list and over three hundred in the
American list. It would be impossible to state the total number of
copies printed, but assuming that the accepted estimate of six and
one half million for the _Primer_ is approximately correct, we must
grant that the _Divine Songs_ stands with a total number of copies to
its credit considerably in excess of that number.
* * * * *
Isaac Watts, the eldest of nine children, was born at Southampton
on the 17th of July, 1674, about sixteen years after the death of
Oliver Cromwell. His father was a schoolmaster, a man of excellent
mental attainments and a Dissenter who suffered persecution for his
convictions, even to the extent of imprisonment. This was during the
reign of Charles II, when nonconformity was looked upon as a crime.
Young Isaac was reared in this atmosphere of protest, and it is of
record that while the father lay in prison “Mrs. Watts was seen
sitting on a stone, near the prison door, suckling her son Isaac.”
Little Isaac was a precocious child, reading Latin at four, and was
known as a boy who loved his books more than his play. The result was
that his over-studious habits greatly militated against his health,
and during most of his life he was a physical weakling.
A vivid pen-picture of this anemic boy in his school days is given in
a review of a new edition of some of his later works, in the _North
British Review_ in 1857. The reviewer writes:
“In the gloomy reign of James II, the most diligent boy in
the Grammar School of Southampton was a little Puritan. So
tiny, that he would hardly have passed for eleven years of
age, he was so grave and good, as to be at once a model and
a reproof to his sturdier class-mates; and, although in
repose there was nothing peculiarly prepossessing in his
pale face, with its prominent cheekbones, and a forehead
far from lofty, the moment that some hard question posed
the form, the sparkling eye and the light nervous figure
quivering with the pent-up answer, betrayed the genius
and the scholar. Already he had made good proficiency in
French, Latin, and Greek, and had delighted his mother,
whilst he astonished his companions, by ingenious acrostics
and clever impromptu stanzas; and altogether, with his
quiet, docile disposition, and his precocious attainments,
he made glad the heart of the Rev. Mr. Pinhorn, who, like
many a disconsolate preceptor before and since, at last
foresaw a dim and distant Ararat, and hailed the youth who
should yet ‘comfort him concerning his work and the toil of
his hands.’”
When he was twenty-two, in 1696, young Watts became tutor to the
children of a wealthy friend of his family at Stoke-Newington, and
two years later, while thus employed, he preached his first sermon
on his twenty-fourth birthday as assistant to Dr. Chauncy, minister
of the Independent congregation in Mark Lane, London. In 1702 he
succeeded to Dr. Chauncy’s pastorate, taking full charge of the
congregation. But his frail health soon necessitated an assistant
with whom to share his burdens.
In Dr. Watts’s congregation was Sir Thomas Abney and his family. Sir
Thomas was for many years an alderman of the city of London and at
one time its mayor. Dr. Watts in 1712, at the age of thirty-eight,
succumbed to the arduous tasks of his ministry and quite collapsed.
Lady Abney, ever alert in good works, took the worthy parson to
Theobalds, their country home at Stoke-Newington, for a few weeks’
rest and fresh air. His visit has come down to us as a record for
length. The weeks sped on and then the years, and still he continued
a welcome and honored guest until his death thirty-six years after
his advent to that hospitable household. While under the sheltering
roof of Theobalds, Dr. Watts wrote several of his justly celebrated
works and in 1715 gave to the world the memorable volume of _Divine
Songs for Children_. In graceful acknowledgment of his guestship, he
dedicated that little book to Sarah, Mary and Elizabeth Abney, the
three daughters of Sir Thomas and Lady Abney. One of the two known
copies of the first edition of the _Divine Songs_ bears on the inside
of its front cover in Dr. Watts’s handwriting, “To Mrs. Elizabeth
Abney, I. W.” Of course Elizabeth, a child of eleven, was not “Mrs.”
in our present understanding of that term, but “Mistress”, used as an
expression of respect even to children at that time.
This presentation copy has found a home in the sumptuous library of
the late J. Pierpont Morgan, and another first edition of one of
Dr. Watts’s books in that library is similarly inscribed to another
daughter of the Abneys’.
The Morgan copy of the first edition of _Divine Songs_ was specially
bound in red morocco rather elaborately gold-tooled. This copy had
an interesting career before reaching its present resting-place. It
was picked up by a Nottingham bookseller with a handful of other
old books in a country house in 1902, at a cost of less than a
guinea for the lot. It had come down to its previous owner from
her great-grandfather, Meredith Townsend, co-pastor with Dr. Watts
at Stoke-Newington. The bookseller sold it to Mr. James Ward, a
collector of Nottingham, for about £30 and by him it was sold at
Sotheby’s, after spirited bidding, for £155 to Mr. Morgan’s agent.
The following Christmas, in a privately printed booklet, Mr. Ward
distributed to a few friends a most interesting history of this
little volume.
In the thirteen pages of dedication which appears in the earlier
editions of the _Divine Songs_, Dr. Watts pays pleasing tribute to
the hospitality of the Abney family, beginning as follows:
“My Dear Young Friends, Whom I am constrain’d to love
and honour by many Obligations. It was the generous
and condescending Friendship of your Parents under my
weak Circumstances of Health; that brought me to their
Country-Seat for the Benefit of the Air; but it was an
Instance of most uncommon Kindness, to supply me there
so cheerfully for two Years of Sickness with the richest
Conveniences of Life. Such a Favour requires my most
affectionate Returns of Service to themselves, and to all
that is dear to them; and meer Gratitude demands some
solemn and public acknowledgment.”
The dedication then goes on to praise not only Sir Thomas and his
wife, but particularly their three daughters whose education Dr.
Watts superintended, and closes with the following benediction:
“May the Blessings of his Right Hand more enrich you daily,
as your Capacities and your Years increase; and may he add
bountifully of the Favours of his Left Hand, Riches and
Honour. May his Grace make you so large a Return of all the
Kindness I have received in your Family, as may prevail
above the fondest Hopes of your Parents, and even exceed
the warmest Prayers of
Your most Affectionate
Monitor and Obliged
Servant, in the daily
Views of a future
World,
I. WATTS.
Theobalds,
June 18,
1715.”
This quaint dedication was omitted from those editions printed after
1750, but the preface, “To all that are concerned in the Education of
Children”, has persisted to this day in nearly every edition that has
come to my observation. This preface is addressed to “My Friends”,
and begins “It is an awful and important Charge, that is committed
to you. The Wisdom and Welfare of the succeeding Generation are
entrusted with you beforehand, and depend much on your Conduct....
Verse was at first design’d for the Service of God, though it hath
been wretchedly abused since.... What is learnt in _Verse_, is
longer retained in Memory, and sooner recollected.... These _Divine
Songs_ may be a pleasant and proper Matter for their daily or weekly
Worship, to sing one in the Family, at such time as the Parents or
Governors shall appoint; and therefore I have confined the Verse to
the most usual Psalm Tunes. The greatest Part of this little Book
was composed several Years ago, at the Request of a Friend, who has
been long engag’d in the Work of Catechising a very great Number of
Children of all kinds, and with abundant Skill and Success. So that
you will find here nothing that savours of a Party: The Children
of high and low Degree, of the Church of _England_ or Dissenters,
baptized in Infancy, or not, may all join together in these Songs.
And as I have endeavoured to sink the Language to a Level of a
Child’s Understanding, and yet to keep it (if possible) above
Contempt; so I have design’d to profit all (if possible) and offend
none.”
Then he closes with a reference to the _Moral Songs_ as follows:
“I have added at the End an Attempt or two of _Sonnets_ on _Moral
Subjects_ for Children, with an Air of Pleasantry, to provoke
some fitter Pen to write a little Book of them.” The earliest
record I have found of one so “provoked” is in the preface to Mrs.
Barbauld’s “Hymns in Prose, For Children”, published about 1775.
There she writes, “Among the number of Books composed for the use of
children, though there are many, and some on a very rational plan,
which unfold the system, and give a summary of the doctrines of
Religion, it would be difficult to find _one_ calculated to assist
them in the devotional part of it, except indeed _Dr. Watts’s Hymns
for Children_. These are in pretty general use; and the Author is
deservedly honoured for the condescension of his Muse; which is very
able to take a loftier flight.”
It is not, however, until the early part of the nineteenth century
that I find a work in direct imitation of Dr. Watts’s little book.
Then in close sequence several volumes of verses for children
appeared, the authors of each of which acknowledged the impetus to
their muse from Dr. Watts’s preface. The first of these was “Moral
Songs for the Instruction and Amusement of Children Intended as a
Companion to Dr. Watts’ Divine Songs, by John Oakman and Others.”
This was published in London in 1802 by Darton and Harvey. The
preface states, “Whoever follows the manner of another who has been
happy in any particular way, however successful he may prove in his
labours, will only gain the servile name of an imitator. A man so
eminent as Dr. Watts has been in his Hymns and Moral Songs, for the
edification of children, it must be granted, there is little hope
of following with much success.... But as he declared himself there
is much room left to proceed in the same way, and has in a manner
exhorted others to pursue his ideas, the Author of this little book
hopes to be excused for the attempt if not applauded.” And surely
the author of these later “Moral Songs” is open to the accusation of
being a “servile imitator”, as witness one extract:
_Danger of Mispending Time_
How craftily the spider weaves,
And draws her slender threads!
Yet sudden chance her hopes deceives,
And spoils the net she spreads.
Let me not spend my precious hours
In trifling works like these;
But still employ my active pow’rs
In what may truly please.
The style well copied but the inspiration feeble and the moral hardly
deducible from the subject. A few years later, the Taylor sisters,
Jane, Ann, Mary and the rest of them, who had in 1803 been very
successful with their “Original Poems for Infant Minds”, published a
volume entitled “Hymns for Infant Minds”. These young women in their
preface acknowledge their indebtedness to Dr. Watts as follows:
“The ‘Divine Songs’ of Dr. Watts, so beautiful, and
so universally admired, almost discourage, by their
excellence, a similar attempt; and lead the way, where it
appears temerity to follow. But as the narrow limits to
which he confined himself, excluded a number of useful
subjects, the following Hymns, though with much diffidence,
are presented to the public.”
It was not long after the _Divine Songs_ rode into popularity on wave
after wave of editions that itching fingers began to busy themselves
with alterations and modifications of these simple and sincere
verses. As early as 1720 one Cobbin, a reverend doctor, conceived the
idea that the work would be more useful with Scripture references
appended to each song. So he forthwith lumbered up the little volume
with voluminous footnotes of references and comments, but thanks be,
the dear children could skip all this dry stuff.
Then later the strong theology of some of the songs annoyed our good
friends the Unitarians and they, by the hand of one who modestly
subscribed herself on the title-page as “A Lady”, proceeded to take
the starch out of some of the more rigid ones, to sprinkle in a
little “probation after death” and entirely omit Song III, “Praise
to God for redemption through Jesus Christ.” That song was a bit
too Trinitarian for remodeling. Dr. Watts’s delightful preface is
omitted and a new preface setting forth the reasons for revision and
alteration, is substituted. This is signed “E. Y.” and dated November
17, 1785.
This “Revised and Altered” form evidently proved popular, as a second
edition appeared in 1787, with an added note that “A large impression
of the first edition of these Hymns, Revised and Altered, having been
favorably received by the public, the editor has been encouraged to
give further attention to their improvement, and to cause them to be
printed in their present form.” The fair reviser was brave enough to
retain Song XI, “Heaven and Hell”, but replaced Dr. Watts’s second
stanza
“There is a dreadful Hell,
And everlasting Pains,
Where Sinners must with Devils dwell,
In Darkness, Fire, and Chains.”
with the following, much more comforting to a naughty world
“There also is a future state,
Of Mis’ry, grief and pain;
Where wicked children long must wait,
And many years remain.”