Improvement of the Mind

Good old Isaac Watts is known to the present generation chiefly as the inventor of English evangelical hymnody. His "Psalms and Hymns" revolutionized an important department of Christian worship. His "Divine and Moral Songs for Children" have not totally fallen into disuse. But his "Improvement of the Mind,'"which years ago was carefully put into the hands of every young man who aspired to a liberal education, is now scarcely known by name. Yet the book had obtained this weighty endorsement by the great Dr. Samuel Johnson: "Whoever has the care of instructing others, may be charged with deficiency in his duty if this book is not recommended." The neglect into which it has fallen is due partly to the unsightly appearance of the cheap editions which were issued while it was still in vogue, and partly to its being cumbered with an excess of theology. In this 1885 edition, Dr. Fellows has relieved the work of this extraneous matter, and has increased its practical value by an excellent analysis as well as various typographical devices which bring into prominence the more important parts. Dr. Fellows in his preface says that the original work was first published in 1727, but Allibone does not trace it back further than 1741, though Watts's " Logic; or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth," to which this work was originally a supplement, was published in 1725. As recast and modernized in the present edition, the work is well fitted for use by new generations of American youth. This edition originally published in 1885 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.