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XXXVIII. THERE are other things besides history, grammar, and languages, rhetoric and poesy, which have been included under the name of philological knowledge; such as, an acquaintance with the notions, customs, manners, tempers, polity, &c. of the various nations of the earth, or the distinct sects and tribes of mankind. This is necessary in order to understand history the better; and every man who is a lawyer, or a gentleman, ought to obtain some acquaintance with these things, without which he can never read history to any great advantage, nor can he maintain his own station and character in life with honour and dignity without some insight into them.

XXXIX. STUDENTS in divinity ought to seek a larger acquaintance with the Jewish laws, polity, customs, &c. in order to understand many passages of the Old Testament and the New, and to vindicate the sacred writers from the reproaches of infidels. An acquaintance also with many of the Roman and Grecian affairs is needful to explain several texts of scripture in the New Testament, to lead sincere inquirers into the true and genuine sense of the evangelists and apostles, and to guard the writings from the unreasonable cavils of men.

XL. THE art of criticism is reckoned by some as a distinct part of philology; but it is in truth nothing else than a more exact and accurate knowledge or skill in the other parts of it, and a readiness to apply that knowledge upon all occasions, in order to judge well of what relates to these subjects, to explain what is obscure in the authors which we read, to supply what is defective, and amend what is erroneous in manuscripts or ancient copies, to correct the mistakes of authors and editors in the sense or the words, to reconcile the controversies of the learned, and by this means to spread a juster knowledge of these things among the inquisitive part of mankind.

Every man who pretends to the learned professions, if he doth not arise to be a critic himself in philological mat

ters,

ters, he should be frequently conversing with those books, whether dictionaries, paraphrasts, commentators, or other critics, which may relieve any difficulties he meets with, and give him a more exact acquaintance with those studies which he pursues.

And whensoever any person is arrived to such a degree of knowledge in these things as to furnish him well for the practice of criticism, let him take great care that pride and vanity, contempt of others, with inward wrath and inso lence, do not mingle themselves with his remarks and cengures. Let him remember the common frailties of human nature, and the mistakes to which the wisest man is sometimes liable, that he may practise this art with due modesty and candour.

THE

THE

IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND.

Part Second.

CONTAINING

VARIOUS REMARKS AND RULES

about the

COMMUNICATION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

PREFACE.

THE author's name, which is prefixed to this book, renders it altogether needless for us to say any thing in order to recommend it: and we need not assure any judicious reader, who has been conversant with Dr Watts's writings, that this is the genuine work of that excellent author; for he cannot fail of discerning the doctor's easy style, and beautiful manner of expression in every page. We esteem it an honour done us by that truly great man, that he was pleased, by his last will, to entrust us with his manuscripts which he designed for the press; however, he lived to publish several of those himself, after his will was made, so that not many remain to be published by us. Some indeed there are remaining, which he did originally intend for the press, but his broken state of health did not permit him to finish them, and they are left too imperfect to be ever published. Of this sort, among others, is the larger discourse on psalmody, which he gave notice of his intention to publish in the preface to the second edition of his Hymns, when he withdrew the shorter Essay on that subject, which was annexed to the first edition. There are also among his manuscripts some tracts relating to a doctrinal controversy, which the doctor had been engaged in, but which the world seems to be tired of: so that, most probably, this second part of the Improvement of the Mind, with the Discourse on Education, and some additions to the Reliquia Juveniles, are all the posthumous works of Dr Watts that will ever be printed.

As to this work in particular, a considerable part of it was corrected for the press by the doctor's own hand; and as to the rest of it, he did not leave it so far unfinished as should, in his own judgement, discourage the publishing it; for he has left this note in a paper along with it, "Though this book, or

"the

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