THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND, OR A SUPPLEMENT TO THE ART OF LOGIC. In Two Parts. BY ISAAC WATTS, D. D. ALSO HIS POSTHUMOUS WORKS, Published from bis Manuscripts, BY D. JENNINGS, D.D. AND P. DODDRIDGE, D.D. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY D. SCHAW, RIDDELL'S COURT; FOR WILLIAM CREECH. 1801. ADVERTISEMENT. [From Dr JOHNSON's Life of Dr WATTS.] "FEW books have been perused by me with greater pleasure than his IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND, of which the radical principles may indeed be found in Locke's Conduct of the Understanding; but they are so expanded and ramified by Watts, as to confer upon him the merit of a work in the highest degree useful and pleasing. Whoever has the care of instructing others may be charged with deficience in his duty if this book is not recommended. "As piety predominated in his mind, it is diffused over all his works: under his direction it may be truly said, Theologia philosophia ancillatur, philosophy is subservient to evangelical instruction; it is difficult to read a page without learning, or at least wishing to be better. The attention is caught by indirect instruction, and he that sat down. only to reason is, on a sudden, compelled to pray. "It was therefore with great propriety that, in 1728, he received from Edinburgh and Aberdeen an unsolicited diploma, by which he became a Doctor of Divinity. Academical honours would have more value, if they were always bestowed with equal judgement. "Few |