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CHAPTER XXV.

Mr Watson's personal Appearance-Manners-Mental Character-Attainments-Judgment and Imagination-Fine Taste-Versatility of his Talents— Practical Habits-Uprightness and Consistency-Diligence-Pastoral Visitation -Kind Attention to Children-Temper-Effect of Disease upon his SpiritsForgiving Temper-Generosity-Conduct in the Domestic Relations-Letter to his Son Qualifications as Missionary Secretary-Usefulness in that OfficeCatholic Spirit-Modesty-Powers of Conversation-Submission to the Authority of Scripture-Letter to a Speculatist-Character of his Preaching-Manner in the Pulpit-Examples of powerful Eloquence-Manner of conducting Public Worship Attachment to his own Denomination-Conduct as a Methodist Preacher-Was not a theoretic Dissenter-Regard for the established ChurchHis deep Piety-Honour put upon him in Death.

FROM the preceding narrative, it is presumed, a tolerably accurate conception may be formed of Mr. Watson's person, labours, and character; and yet a few additional remarks upon these subjects, embodying some facts which have not been stated, and bringing his peculiar opinions and habits more distinctly into view, will perhaps be deemed neither unnecessary nor uninteresting.

It has been already observed, that his stature was six feet two inches. In person he was extremely slender; and though tall, his carriage was graceful and dignified. His eyes were a dark brown, bright and piercing. His forehead was remarkably lofty, broad, somewhat arched, and altogether formed with consummate beauty. His countenance, which was strongly marked, was expressive of intelligence, decision, deep thought, affection, and reverence. In the earlier part of his life it indicated great liveliness; but in his latter years, intense study and care, with incessant disease and pain, impressed upon it an air of sadness and languor. No attempts had been made to render his manners conformable to the rules of an artificial politeness; but the native dignity of his mind, his own inherent sense of what was becoming, and the benevolent feelings with which his heart was charged, gave a superior elegance and propriety to all his movements and conduct in social intercourse. Never perhaps was a man equally great more entirely free from eccentricity. His voice was a clear and mellow base, not remarkably strong; and was very agreeable, except when overstrained in large assemblies.

The mind of Mr. Watson was not distinguished by the overpowering energy of any one faculty, but by the assemblage of all that constitutes true greatness. Some men who have excelled in pure intellect, and as masters of reason, have possessed little vigour of imagination, or warmth of feeling; and men of unbounded power of imagination have often given sad proof of infirmity of judgment. Of the former class were Dr. Barrow and Bishop Butler; men whose writings are profound and original, but addressed exclusively to the understanding; and Bishop Taylor and Milton may be adduced as examples of the latter. The richness and splendour of Taylor's imagery are unrivalled; but as a Protestant divine his doctrine is frequently erroneous and misleading. Seldom has the evangelical method of a sinner's justification before God been more grievously mistaken than by this eloquent divine; and on the question of original sin, his views were very unsound. Milton's genius achieved in poetry what no other man ever accom

plished; but, to say nothing of the gross theological errors into which he fell in the latter years of his life, he taught opinions concerning divorce which if practically exemplified, would subvert the very foundations of society, and be fatal to the morals of mankind; and a mind immensely inferior to his might have seen that the establishment of a military despotism upon the ruins of a constitutional monarchy was not likely to settle the liberties of the people of England upon a permanent base. Yet such was the serious conviction of the author of "Paradise Lost!" Few men possess, in an equal degree, the inventive power of imagination, and the reasoning faculty; and fewer still connect enlarged and comprehensive views of all the subjects to which their attention is seriously directed, with a practical judgment. Such, however, was the character of Mr. Watson's mind. There are in his works specimens of profound and original reasoning on theological and moral subjects which would reflect credit upon the greatest divines and metaphysicians; and there are other passages which, for sublimity of thought, and beauty of illustration, would bear an advantageous comparison with the most admired compositions in the English tongue. He united the fancy of a poet with a sound and discriminating judgment, a habit of minute investigation, and of calm and philosophic thought.

To form a correct view of the power of his mind it will be requisite to survey his attainments, and the circumstances under which they were realized. In very early youth he enjoyed the advantages of a regular scholastic training, especially in the mathematics, and in Greek and Latin; but at the age of fourteen his school books were laid aside, and his attention was directed to the business he had chosen; and though Euclid still engaged his attention at leisure hours, the passion for play and mischief at length nearly supplanted in him all delight in science as well as in literature. After he entered upon the Methodist itinerancy he had to preach eight or nine sermons every week, and almost daily to travel several miles. While thus employed, for more than two years, his reading was desultory, and classical learning neglected. When stationed with Mr. Edmondson, he began to study upon a plan, and made great proficiency in theological and general knowledge; but in less than three years afterward he was involved in the vexations of secular business. The seven or eight years which he spent as a preacher in the Methodist new connection were the only part of his public life that was favourable to mental cultivation. official duties were limited, and he spent little time in travelling from place to place. After his return to the Wesleyan body his labours were incessant and severe. His duties as a minister were numerous and pressing; and those of his missionary secretaryship, with his frequent calls to preach occasional sermons in all parts of the kingdom, were so great an addition to his other engagements, as often to leave scarcely any time at his own disposal. Yet, under all these disadvantages, his attainments were surprising. He would indeed have been the first to disclaim the character of profound and accurate classical scholarship. He perused, however, the Latin poets and moralists with ease; he read the works of the most valuable of the Greek fathers; and within the last two or three years of his life he went carefully through the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, and the Odes of Pindar. He

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was accustomed to read French and Hebrew; and he had a general knowledge of almost every branch of science, particularly of the different branches of natural philosophy. But it was to theology that his attention was principally directed; and to this master science he made every other subservient. In the knowledge of divinity he certainly was not inferior to any man of his age. He thoroughly understood the deistical, the Socinian, and the Calvinistic controversies, and knew the strength and weakness, as well as the practical bearing, of the systems to which they relate; and when occasion served, he could point out, with the utmost precision, the views entertained by different bodies of Christians respecting the principal doctrines of evangelical truth. The Bible was his chief delight. He studied the Greek Testament with close attention for many years, availing himself of the labours of the best critics, both foreign and domestic. He was well versed in the peculiarities of Scripture phraseology, and in Jewish antiquities, with their application to particular passages of holy writ. Considering the state of pain and sickness in which so large a portion of his life was spent, and the incessant bustle and activity in which he was engaged, it is astonishing whence he could have acquired those stores of Biblical and theological knowledge which he was accustomed to pour forth in conversation and preaching, and has embodied in his writings. But the fact is, that his thirst for knowledge was intense, and continued unabated to the last; and his perception was quick, almost beyond example. Many things he seemed to know intuitively; and he would often make himself a perfect master of a system before an ordinary student had conquered its elements. What he learned he scarcely ever forgot. His memory was remarkably tenacious, not of words, but of principles and things.

Mr. Watson's imagination was under the perfect control of a severe and strict judgment. It could produce original combinations of thought in endless variety, and in every form of beauty and sublimity; but that faculty was always kept in subordination to his understanding, and was never suffered to luxuriate into extravagance. He could embellish every subject upon which he either wrote or spoke with appropriate figures of speech; but he never uses an excess of ornament, nor conceals his meaning by a profusion of rhetorical flowers. Even a fastidious critic might hear his extempore discourses for years, without detecting in them any palpable confusion of metaphor. The figures used by him in his writings are remarkable for their originality; they are seldom mere passing allusions, as is generally the case in the writings of ordinary men. They are introduced less for the sake of embellishment than illustration; and are often found on examination to contain striking analogies to the subject under discussion; so that, while they gratify the taste, they enlighten the understanding, and render the author's meaning more distinct and impressive.

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In reference to almost every subject his taste was elegant and correct. He was a great admirer of fine specimens of art, especially in painting, statuary, and medals. On the opening of the annual exhibition at Somerset-House, by the Royal Academy, he was usually an early visiter to that place of attraction; and was often highly delighted with the productions of genius there presented to the public inspection. But it was in nature that his perception of the beautiful and sublime

met its highest gratification. No "poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling," and "glancing from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven," observed the works of creation with more. minute attention; and no mind more admired the varied landscape, and the endless wonders of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. He traced the analogies between them and moral subjects; and often introduced allusions to them in his ministry and writings with the happiest effect. In one of his visits to Northampton, to attend a missionary meeting, where he was joined by the Rev. George Cubitt, he strayed into the green house of his kind host; and there a flower, of diminutive size and exquisite tints attracted his notice. For some minutes he stood gazing at it with his magnifying glass, in perfect silence; when he said to his friend, " Mr. Cubitt, I do not say that I disbelieve the article of the Church of England, which states that God is without body, parts, or passions ;' but after all, sir, he is not a mere impalpable metaphysical existence. Look at this flower, sir;" pointing out some of its beauties of form and colour; and then added, with considerable emotion, "No, sir; God loves beauty, and has covered the earth with it. This is no chance production. The almighty Architect knew what he was doing when he made it, as much as when he made the most glorious world." His taste was sanctified, and rendered conducive to the improvement of his own piety, and that of others.

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The versatility of Mr. Watson's talents was one of the most remarkable peculiarities of his character. He not only succeeded but excelled in every thing that he undertook, except in trade; and in that he was as certainly opposed by Divine Providence, as that "the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." His Maker conferred upon him his great powers for a higher purpose than that to which he directed them when he retired from the ministry. He was equally eminent as a writer, and as a public speaker; in argumentation, and in eloquence; in the pulpit, and on the platform; in pleading the cause of Christian missions, and in directing their operations. With equal ease he could take enlarged and statesman-like views of national affairs, discuss the profoundest questions in theology and metaphysics, and enter minutely into all the arrangements of private life, even to the form and position of common articles of domestic furniture. He would engage in enlightened conversation with persons of highly cultivated minds; and enter into the views and feelings of pious peasants in country villages, so as to make himself equally instructive and agreeable. His works all bear the impress of his intellectual character; and yet they are greatly diversified in their style and manner. The "Life of Mr. Wesley" is an easy and flowing narrative; with many nice distinctions and acute remarks on points of theological doctrine. The "Conversations for the Young" are written with great elegance and simplicity. His sermons are fine specimens of powerful and commanding eloquence. Burke himself could not have excelled the rich and varied diction of the discourses on Ezekiel's vision, "Man magnified by the Divine Regard," and "the Religious Instruction of the Negro Slaves." The style of the "Theological Institutes" is nervous and unadorned, adapted to argument and disquisition; and his incomparable missionary reports present a remarkable admixture of minute and business-like detail, and of forcible appeals in behalf of a perishing world. "His qualifications for interpreting Scripture were of the first VOL. I.

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rank. Calm, judicious, extensively read, possessing sound learning, he had at the same time a clear insight into the mind of the Spirit, and an intimate acquaintance with the phraseology, idiom, and general principles of interpretation of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures." (Evangelical Magazine.) Had it pleased the Almighty to bless him with robust health, and to spare him twenty years longer, when he would have arrived at the full age of man, it is impossible to say what stupendous monuments of genius and industry he would have reared, and left to posterity as a theologian and an interpreter of holy writ. But he was cut off at a period when his faculties were matured, and when most men who have been distinguished as writers have just begun to benefit the world by their talents and erudition.

Mr. Watson's mind and habits were eminently practical. There was nothing speculative and theoretic about him. He valued knowledge, books, and principles, according to their adaptation to useful purposes. Although he was an endless reader, he never cherished a passion for collecting a large library; and he seldom permanently retained any books, except such as he needed for the purpose of reference. When they accumulated, so that their removal from one circuit to another became inconvenient, he would dispose of them to the advantage of a poor and deserving man whom he wished to serve, and advise him to set up a stall in the street, and thus commence a business that might be ultimately beneficial. He had a deep impression of the responsibility connected with authorship; and in conversation often referred to the striking sentiment of Dr. South, that, in regard to men in general, their account for eternity closes with their lives; but that a "running account" is kept open with the writer of a bad book, as long as that book continues to circulate, and to injure mankind in their moral and spiritual interests. No man was happier than he in the selection of subjects upon which to employ his pen. Excepting one or two ephemeral productions which he wrote in early life, all his publications are of the useful and practical kind. They are intended to illustrate and defend the great principles of revealed truth; and they are generally acceptable to all classes of serious and devout Christians.

It has been thought by some persons, that as Mr. Watson commenced his religious career and ministry in the Wesleyan body, afterward was a preacher in the Methodist new connection, and then again returned to his former friends, there was something of fickleness and instability in his mind; but such persons have had very erroneous conceptions concerning his real character. His attachment to the vital doctrines of Christianity was formed at an early age, when he realized their truth and power in his own conversion; and to these he adhered through life. The more closely he studied them in the light of Holy Scripture, the deeper was his conviction of their Divine authority, and the more intense was his zeal in defending and propagating them. Under the pressure of peculiar circumstances he resigned his itinerant ministry, intending to support himself and his family by his labour through the week, and gratuitously to preach the word of life in his own neighbourhood, on the Lord's day. He soon felt that in this he had mistaken the path of duty; he was deeply distressed on account of the step which he had hastily and unhappily taken, and the situation in which he was placed. His salvation depended upon the

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