In the Table of Contents eight pieces are grouped under this heading, but of these only the first four are from the Psalms. The first is Psalm I, afterwards altered into the third (L. M.) imitation of that Psalm in the Imitations of 1719. Next comes Psalm III, beginning here,

"Look, Gracious God, how numerous they,"

to be much altered in 1719. The last is Psalm cxxxiii, substantially the c. M. rendering of 1719, though (happily) with revision there of the lines:

"Down softly from his Reverend Head

It trickled to his Toes."

The third of the four is the one particularly interesting us. Its title and text are as follows:

Praise to the LORD

FROM

All NATIONS.

PSALM C.

I.

SING to the Lord with Joyful Voice,
Let every Land his Name adore,
The British Isles shall send the Noise
Across the Ocean to the Shore.

II.

With gladness bow before his Throne,
And let his Presence raise your Joys,

Know that the Lord is God alone,

And form'd our Souls, and fram'd our Voice.

*This is the group referred to in the June number of the JOURNAL as the

nucleus of the now famous "Imitations."

III.

Infinite Power without our aid

Figur'd our Clay to humane Mould;

And when our Wandring Feet had stray'd,
He brought us to his Sacred Fold.

IV.

Enter his Gates with Thankful Songs,
Thro' his Wide Courts your Voices raise;
Almighty God, our Joyful Tongues

Shall fill thine house with sounding Praise.

V.

Wide as the World is thy Command,

Vast as Eternity thy Love,

Firm as a Rock thy Truth must stand

When rolling Years shall cease to move.

This, then, is the original form of our hymn as it stands in the first edition of the Horae.

So completely has this little group of imitations faded out of sight that the only mention of it known to the present writer is by Thomas Milner in his Life of Watts already referred to. He

says:

"The first edition [of the Horae] contained several pieces which were afterwards omitted, particularly metrical versions of the 1st, 3rd, 100th and 131st [133rd, it should be] Psalms, which now appear with some alterations in the imitations of the Psalms." *

But even he comes under the peculiar shadow which seems to obscure the subject. Referring to our hymn, he says:†

"The noble version of the 100th Psalm, in Watts's imitations, is also an equally felicitous improvement of some jingling rhymes which first appeared in the Lyrics. Two stanzas will exhibit his happy method of retouching his compositions."

Milner goes on to quote, in illustration, two verses from a version of "Psalm C. In Trissyllable Feet," which Watts printed in the Horae, but apart from the other imitations, probably as differing from them in purpose and manner. That version begins:

* P. 252. † P. 253.

"Sing aloud to the Lord: Let the two Frozen Poles

Awake to the Song, and dissolve in the Praise."

The two verses quoted (correcting some misquotations on Milner's part) are as follows:

III.

"'Twas he that gave Life to our Souls with a Breath,

He fashion'd our Clay to the Figure of Men;

And when we had stray'd to the Regions of Death,
He reduc'd his own Sheep to his Pastures again.

IV.

"We enter his Gates with Hosannahs and Songs,

The Arches resound with the Notes that we raise;
Thus while our Devotions are paid with our Tongues,
Thy Temple adores by repeating the Praise."

Now Mr. Milner must have had before him a copy of the first edition of the Horae, and yet this poor stuff is only separated by five pages from the actual original of our hymn. And surely the fact that the one man who records this earliest group of imitations should make no better use of his discovery than to hide from himself and others the original he sought, is a very characteristic last scene in a little comedy of errors.

II. WATTS's FINAL TEXT.

In order of publication the first edition of the Hymns next follows the Horae. To this work the four Psalms forming the group in the Horae were transferred, not appearing again in the second edition of the Horae in 1709 or its later issues. The one in question becomes Hymn XLIII of Book I. Excepting that in the third line British-Isles is hyphened, and italicized throughout, and that the always eccentric capitalization slightly varies, there is no change in title or text. From the second edition of the Hymns this and all other psalm-versions disappear, owing to the author's purpose of covering the entire Psalter, as was explained in a former article in this JOURNAL.*

Dr. Watts's "THE PSALMS OF DAVID IMITATED in the Language of the New Testament, And apply'd to the Christian State.

*Vol. I, p. 272.

and Worship" was published in London in 1719,* in a style of elegance in marked contrast with the somewhat cheap appearance of the Hymns. The book is printed on fine paper, and decorated with head and tail pieces, and the writer's copy is handruled on every page with red lines, and bound in full red calf with rich toolings. It reflects probably not only a more assured confidence in his public on the author's part, but also a greater ease in the circumstances of the dissenting public itself. Of the two versions of Psalm C in the Imitations, the first, which is headed "A Plain Translation. Praise to our Creator.", is overshadowed by the second, which is a revision of that in the Horae. Title and text are as follows:

PSALM C. Second Metre, a Paraphrase.

I.

SING to the Lord with joyfull Voice;

Let every Land his Name adore;

The British Isles shall send the Noise
A-cross the Ocean to the Shore.

II.

Nations, attend before his Throne
With solemn Fear, with sacred Joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone;
He can create, and he destroy.

III.

His sovereign Power without our Aid
Made us of Clay, and form'd us Men:
And when like wandring Sheep we stray'd,

He brought us to his Fold again.

IV.

We are his people, we his Care,
Our Souls and all our mortal Frame:
What lasting Honours shall we rear
Almighty Maker, to thy Name?

* As Dr. Watts's Memorable Affairs comes down only to 1710, we can have in this case no conflicting entry to try our faith in the accuracy of the date on the title page.

V.

Wee'll croud thy Gates with thankfull Songs,
High as the Heavens our Voices raise;

And Earth with her ten thousand Tongues
Shall fill thy Courts with sounding Praise.

VI.

Wide as the World is thy Command,

Vast as Eternity thy Love;

Firm as a Rock thy Truth must stand

When rolling Years shall cease to move.

In this revised text the first and last verses remain unchanged from the original; the fourth verse is new; and the remaining three, while not so much changed as to lose their identity, are considerably strengthened, not only in language and rhythm, but in thought. Of every alteration, perhaps, it may be said that the change is an improvement. This was the author's final text. He made no changes in successive editions of the Imita

tions.

In the preface to the Imitations, Dr. Watts confessed his obligations to his predecessors, especially singling out Sir John Denham, Luke Milbourne, and Tate and Brady, as authors from whom he had "not refused in some few Psalms to borrow a single line or two," but particularizing Dr. Patrick as the one with whom he had taken the greatest freedom. In this partic

ular Psalm there seem to be no observable traces of the first three authors mentioned; but no less than three lines can be distinctly traced to their originals in Dr. Patrick's version.* These three lines are as follows: †

Patrick: We are the people of his Care.

Watts: We are his people, we his care.

Patrick: Enter his Gates with thankfull hearts.

Watts: We'll croud thy Gates with thankfull Songs.

* Dr. John Patrick in 1679 published "A Century of Select Psalms, and portions of the Psalms of David, in verse, for the use of the Charter-House,' of which he was chaplain. Enlarged subsequently into a complete version, they were frequently reprinted and won wide approval.

†The Hamburg edition of 1692 is used.