infirmities of age disabled him from the more laborious part of his
ministerial functions, and, being no longer capable of public duty,
he offered to remit the salary appendent to it; but his congregation
would not accept the resignation. By degrees his weakness
increased, and at last confined him to his chamber and his bed,
where he was worn gradually away without pain, till he expired
November 25th 1748, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

Few men have left behind such purity of character, or such monuments
of laborious piety. He has provided instruction for all ages--from
those who are lisping their first lessons, to the enlightened
readers of Malebranche and Locke; he has left neither corporeal nor
spiritual nature unexamined; he has taught the art of reasoning, and
the science of the stars. His character, therefore, must be formed
from the multiplicity and diversity of his attainments, rather than
from any single performance, for it would not be safe to claim for
him the highest rank in any single denomination of literary dignity;
yet, perhaps, there was nothing in which he would not have excelled,
if he had not divided his powers to different pursuits.

As a poet, had he been only a poet, he would probably have stood
high among the authors with whom he is now associated. For his
judgment was exact, and he noted beauties and faults with very nice
discernment; his imagination, as the "Dacian Battle" proves, was
vigorous and active, and the stores of knowledge were large by which
his fancy was to be supplied. His ear was well tuned, and his
diction was elegant and copious. But his devotional poetry is, like
that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topics enforces
perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the
ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Watts to have