comprises an account of six-and-thirty years, and those the years of
Dr. Watts.

From the time of his reception into this family his life was no
otherwise diversified than by successive publications. The series
of his works I am not able to deduce; their number and their variety
show the intenseness of his industry and the extent of his capacity.
He was one of the first authors that taught the Dissenters to court
attention by the graces of language. Whatever they had among them
before, whether of learning or acuteness, was commonly obscured and
blunted by coarseness and inelegance of style. He showed them that
zeal and purity might be expressed and enforced by polished diction.
He continued to the end of his life a teacher of a congregation, and
no reader of his works can doubt his fidelity or diligence. In the
pulpit, though his low stature, which very little exceeded five
feet, graced him with no advantages of appearance, yet the gravity
and propriety of his utterance made his discourses very efficacious.
I once mentioned the reputation which Mr. Foster had gained by his
proper delivery, to my friend Dr. Hawkesworth, who told me that in
the art of pronunciation he was far inferior to Dr. Watts. Such was
his flow of thoughts, and such his promptitude of language, that in
the latter part of his life he did not precompose his cursory
sermons, but, having adjusted the heads and sketched out some
particulars, trusted for success to his extemporary powers. He did
not endeavour to assist his eloquence by any gesticulations; for, as
no corporeal actions have any correspondence with theological truth,
he did not see how they could enforce it. At the conclusion of
weighty sentences he gave time, by a short pause, for the proper
impression.