ral. In his other poems he cannot be denied the praise of lines fometimes elegant; but he has feldom much force, or much comprehenfion. The pieces that please best are thofe which, from Pope and Pope's adherents, procured him the name of Namby Pamby, the poems of short lines, by which he paid his court to all ages and characters, from Walpole the steerer of the realm to miss Pulteney in the nursery: the numbers are smooth and fpritely, and the diction is feldom faulty. They are not loaded with much thought, yet if they had been written by Addison they would have had admirers little things are not valued but when they are done by those who can do greater.

In his tranflations from Pindar he found the art of reaching all the obfcurity of the Theban bard, however he may fall below his fublimity; he will be allowed, if he has lefs fire, to have more smoke.

He has added nothing to English poetry, yet at leaft half his book deferves to be read: perhaps he valued most himself that part, which the critick would reject.

****

[ ]

WATT S.

HE Poems of Dr. WATTS

TH

were by my recommendation in

ferted in this Collection; the readers of which are to impute to me whatever pleasure or wearinefs they may find in the perufal of Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden.

ISAAC WATTS was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton, where his father, of the fame name, kept a boarding-school for young gentlemen, though common report makes him a fhoemaker.

He appears, from the narrative of Dr.

Gibbons, to have been neither indigent nor illiterate.

Ifaac, the eldest of nine children, was given to books from his infancy; and began, we are told, to learn Latin when he was four years old, I fuppose, at home. He was afterwards taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, by Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman, mafter of the Free-school at Southampton, to whom the gratitude of his fcholar afterwards infcribed a Latin ode.

His proficiency at school was fo confpicuous, that a fubfcription was propofed for his fupport at the University; but he declared his refolution to take his lot with the Diffenters. Such he

was