Isaac Watts
Overview
 
Isaac Watts was an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...

writer, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns. Many of his hymns remain in use today, and have been translated into many languages.
Born in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in 1674, Watts was brought up in the home of a committed religious Nonconformist — his father, also Isaac Watts, had been incarcerated twice for his controversial views.
Quotations

Were I so tall to reach the pole,Or grasp the ocean with my span,I must be measured by my soul;The mind's the standard of the man.

"False Greatness" in Horae Lyricae Book II (1706). Compare: "I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man", Seneca, On a Happy Life (L'Estrange's Abstract), chap. i; "It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul", Ovid, Metamorphoses, xiii

Lord, in the morning thou shalt hearMy voice ascending high.

Psalm 5

Our God, our help in ages past,Our hope for years to come,Our shelter from the stormy blast,And our eternal home.

Psalm 90 "Our God, our help in ages past" st. 1 (1719)

A thousand ages in Thy sightAre like an evening gone;Short as the watch that ends the nightBefore the rising sun.

Psalm 90 st. 4

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,Bears all its sons away;They fly forgotten, as a dreamDies at the opening day.

Psalm 90 st. 5

From all who dwell below the skiesLet the Creator's praise arise;Let the Redeemer's name be sungThrough every land, by every tongue.

Psalm 117

Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit: fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence.

Improvement of the Mind (1741), Ch. I, General Rules for the Improvement of Knowlege, Rule X "Avoid a dogmatical spirit"

Fly, like a youthful hart or roe,Over the hills where spices grow.

Hymn 79, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I.

And while the lamp holds out to burn,The vilest sinner may return.

Hymn 88, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I.

 
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