Apologia

The gathering of the data which are the bases of this little book was an offshoot of my general interest in the collection of books made for the children of long ago. This field is rich in human interest and leads one into folk-lore and fairyland, a delightful avocation for a man busy in the urgent bread-and-butter (and pie) struggle of to-day.

It was my intention and ardent desire to put forth this little story in 1915, to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the first edition of the Divine and Moral Songs—but—“the best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley”, and mine were ruthlessly spilled; so instead of this book appearing in 1915, the dear old world has made several stormy circuits of its orbit and the chronologers are about to hang out the sign for 1919 before a kindly fate permitted the fulfillment of my heart’s desire in this matter. But never mind, I am doubtless the only one to be much annoyed, for the whole of 1915 passed without the appearance of so much as a newspaper paragraph, so far as I could discover, relative to the momentous fact that two hundred years ago an immortal book first saw the light.

It may be, however, of passing interest to note that the one-hundredth anniversary of the Divine Songs was celebrated by the battle of Waterloo, and the two-hundredth anniversary found Europe in the midst of a conflict to which that celebrated battle of 1815 now seems like boys’ play.

And so, with Herrick I say:

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:

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

with the following, much more comforting to a naughty world

And in verse 4, Dr. Watts wrote

for the last line of which she has substituted

In the first verse of Song XII, “The Advantages of early Religion”, Dr. Watts’s last line reads

and which our tender reviser changes to

In Song XIII, verse 5, Dr. Watts wrote

Our reviser changed the last line to read

are the first two lines of verse 2, Song XIV. These are changed to

The last verse of Song XV begins

The second line is altered to

In verse 4 of Song XVII Dr. Watts wrote

The revised edition reads

From the revised version of SongXVIII, “Against Scoffing and calling Names”, the reference to the children who scoffed Elisha is omitted by dropping out verses 4 and 5, as follows:

In Song XXIII, “Obedience to Parents”, verse 3 was originally written

has been softened to the following:

Listed among the Divine Songs in the British Museum are the following collateral items: “Divine Songs attempted in Easy Language. (A sequel to Dr. Watts’s divine songs for children and schools.) The Rake reformed in the House of Mourning. The Cottage Library of Christian Knowledge etc. Vol. I.” 1806 (?) 8o; and “A Supplement to Dr. Watts’s Divine Songs for the use of Children, selected from various authors. London.” 1820 (?) 12o.

From another source I find, “Essays adapted to Dr. Watts’ Divine Songs. For the instruction of young people. By Rev. A. Scott. 13th edition. London: Printed for Thomas Tegg. 1841. Illustrated.”

In an edition published in Exeter, in 1812, entitled “Dr. Watts’s Hymns for Children, Revised and Altered, so as to render them of General Use”, the editor, who modestly signs himself “C”, explains as follows: “Dr. Watts, in the Preface to his Divine and Moral Songs for Children, says; ‘You will see here nothing that savours of a party,’ nevertheless it cannot be denied, that, in several parts of these Hymns, expressions do occur, which are objectionable to many Christians; and which, there is reason to believe, the amiable and excellent Author would have avoided, had he written them toward the latter part of his life.” Our editor then goes on to state which obnoxious weeds he has uprooted and what new flowers he has transplanted from other gardens. Of some of the latter he says: “The next five, Nos. 9 to 13, I have taken the liberty of inserting from a very superior little publication, entitled ‘Hymns for Infant Minds’.” But even here our editor must have a slap at the theology of the gentle “Taylor sisters”, and which

he does in the following terms, throwing in a sop at the end to mitigate the bitter: “I cannot agree with the respectable Authors in some of the opinions which their Hymns express, because I do not think those opinions are the doctrine of the Scriptures; but I have no hesitation in earnestly recommending the book to all judicious Parents.”