that Mr. Heywood was a great politician, and that he was himself, in the early part of his life, the slave of a habit which, though not so hostile to the feelings of his neighbours as pulling of noses, was at least very injurious to their apparel.

"There is a silly habit," says Steele, “among many of our minor orators, who display their eloquence in the several coffee-houses of this fair city, to the no small annoyance of considerable numbers of her majesty's spruce and loving subjects, and that is a humour they have got of twisting off your buttons. These ingenious gentlemen are not able to advance three words until they have got fast hold of one of your buttons; but as soon as they have procured such an excellent handle for discourse, they will indeed proceed with great elocution. I know not how well some may have escaped, but for my part I have often met with them to my cost; having, I believe, within these three years last past been argued out of several dozens, insomuch that I have for some time ordered my tailor to bring me home with every suit a dozen at least of spare ones, to supply the place of such as from time to time are detached, as an help to discourse, by the vehement gentlemen before mentioned. This way of holding a man in discourse is much practised in the coffee-houses within the city, and

does not indeed so much prevail at the politer, end of the town. It is, likewise, more frequently made use of among the small politicians than any other body of men; I am therefore something cautious of entering into a controversy, with this species of statesmen, especially the younger fry; for if you offer in the least to dissent from any thing that one of these advances, he immediately steps up to you, takes hold of one of your buttons, and indeed will soon convince you of the strength of his argumentation. I remember upon the news of Dunkirk's being delivered into our hands, a brisk little fellow, a politician and an able engineer, had got into the middle of Batson's coffee-house, and was fortifying Graveling for the service of the most christian king with all imaginable expedition. The work was carried on with such success, that in less than a quarter of an hour's time he had made it almost impregnable, and in the opinion of several worthy citizens who had gathered round him, full as strong both by sea and land as Dunkirk ever could pretend to be. I happened, however, unadvisedly to attack some of his outworks; upon which, to show his great skill likewise in the offensive part, he immediately made an assault upon one of my buttons, and carried it in less than two minutes, notwithstanding I

made as handsome a defence as was possible. He had likewise invested a second, and would certainly have been master of that too in a very little time, had he not been diverted from this enterprise by the arrival of à courier, who brought advice that his presence was absolutely necessary in the disposal of a beaver; upon which he raised the siege, and indeed retreated with precipitation."

"The real person here alluded to," remarks the annotator on this passage, was Mr.James Heywood. He outlived this silly habit, however, and gave the annotator this, and a variety of similar information, gratis, for he was not a button worse or better for it."

t

32. ISAAC WATTS was born at Southampton, on the 17th of July, 1674. He was the eldest of nine children, and exhibited, even in his infancy, so much attachment to books, that when but four years of age he began to acquire the Latin language, of which, along with Greek, and Hebrew, he shortly afterwards obtained a competent knowledge, under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Pinhorn, master of the Free-school at Southampton.

Having chosen to dissent from the established

• Guardian, vol, fi. p. 11, 12, 13, and the note,

church, he was, in 1690, placed under the care of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, who taught an academy in London; and in 1693 he united in communion with the congregation of his tutor, a man of great worth, and the pastor of a body of Independents.

On the completion of his academical studies he returned, at the age of twenty, to his father's house, where for two years he exclusively de voted himself to a preparation for the awful duties to which he was destined. At the close of this period, being invited by Sir John Hartopp to reside with him as domestic tutor to his son, he embraced the proposal, and during the five years which he spent under this gentleman's roof, he perfected himself in a critical knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.

It was in the last year of his residence with Sir John that he undertook the sacred functions of his profession, by preaching on his birth-day, 1698, and very shortly afterwards he was fixed upon as an assistant to the Rev. Dr. Chauncey, on whose death, in 1701-2 he was appointed to fill the pastoral office as his successor.

Scarcely, however, had he assumed the charge of his flock, before a dangerous illness so com→ pletely interrupted his duties, that the congre gation deemed it necessary to provide him with

a regular assistant in the person of Mr. Samuel -Price, whose services commenced in July, 1703. To such a state of debility, indeed, was Mr. Watts reduced by this attack, that some years elapsed ere he was able to renew his former exertions; on the re-establishment of his health, however, he again punctually, and with uncommon assiduity, performed all the duties of his station, until, in September, 1712, he was once more afflicted with disease; with a fever so violent, that his constitution suffered from it an irretrievable shock; and, though he survived the period commonly assigned to human life, he felt the injuries which it had occasioned even to the hour of his death..

The calamity, however, was productive of an event which made ample compensation for all that he had undergone; his extreme languor and depression, combined with a well-founded admiration of his moral character and talents, called forth into active exertion the benevolence and friendship of Sir Thomas Abney, who, in a manner which could not be resisted, invited him to his house, was indefatigable in his endeavours for the restoration of his health, and had the satisfaction of seeing him restored to his wonted cheerfulness and utility. Under the hospitable roof of this gentleman and his lady, Dr. Watts