July 17, 1674

Isaac Watts (July 17, 1674 to November 25, 1748) was the author of many books, and though his reputation is as a religious leader, his interests obviously were also focused on questions of scholarship. Some of his books have these titles:

The art of reading and writing English (1722)
The Knowledge of the Heavens and the Earth Made Easy (1726)
Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects (1733)

The strength and weakness of human reason (1737)
The ruin and recovery of mankind (1742)

We see in these titles one result of the revolution and religious wars of the 17th century. The chaos inspired numerous attempts to understand the source of the political turmoil. John Locke's philosophy was one such, and so was the religious writing of Isaac Watts. Both of them seemed to think it would help a lot if people reasoned better. 

Watts could not attend Cambridge or Oxford because he was a dissenter, not within the Church of England. He had a congregation, in a London suburb, and a co-minister since Watts was sometimes very ill. This last was a factor in his living circumstances. A local family of great wealth, that of Sir Thomas Abney, onetime Lord-Mayor of London, and obviously sharing the Nonconforming views of Watts, took him into their household, and this allowed him access to the peace and dignity which beauty can bring. He lived there for 36 years. 

We cheated a bit and used an anthology of Watts' works in preparing our essay: 

The Beauties of the Late Rev. Dr. Isaac Watts: containing the most striking and admired passages in the works of that celebrated Divine, Philosopher, Moralist, and Poet
(1821).

The preface to this volume describes Isaac Watts as

....the man who had unquestionably contributed more than any other to convince the dissenters, who bad been ever remarkable for, an affected contempt of the beauties of language, and a studied inelegancy of expression, that the great truths of the Christian gospel would become doubly attractive when displayed in the fascinating powers of a polished diction.
.... 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 Malbranche and Locke; he has left neither corporeal nor spiritual nature unexamined; he has taught the art of reasoning, and the science of the stars.

And Watts had this to say about raising children:

Children should not he encouraged in cruel diversions. Nor should they ever be allowed to practice those diversions that carry an idea of barbarity .and cruelty in them, though it be but to brute creatures. They should not set up cocks to be banged at with cudgels thrown at them about shrovetide; nor delight in giving a tedious lingering death to a young litter of dogs or cats. that may be appointed to be destroyed and drowned, lest they multiply too much in a house.... nor should they take pleasure in pricking, cutting, or mangling young birds which they have caught;. nor using any savage and bloody practices toward any creatures whatsoever; lest their hearts grow hard and unrelenting, and they learn in time to practice these cruelties upon their own kind, and to murder and torture their fellow-mortals ... or. at least to be indifferent to their pain and distress, so as to occasion it without remorse.

The words above are a great chance to look at the heart of a previous century.

In 1719 the hymn "Joy to the World" was published. It was written by Isaac Watts.