Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/441

Rh W A T W A V 415 ragged alone to Paris. There, after a hard struggle, he succeeded in getting work with a painter of saints for country customers, who assigned to Watteau, the future limner of gallant feastings, the repetition of dozens of St Nicholas. The saint brought him food and shelter, and in his few holidays Watteau sketched and drew. From this shop he passed to the studio of Gillot, whose influence helped him to follow the true direction of his own special gifts, but he left him, finding employment with Audran the decorator, then at work in the Luxembourg. Then Watteau quarrelled with Audran and went his way, fancying that Audran had blamed his first picture, the Departing Kegiment, out of jealousy ; and, flushed with success (for he had sold the work), he went off to show him self in his native Valenciennes. There Watteau produced a second work, a Regiment Halting, which also sold in Paris, so thither he returned, and, welcomed by the celebrated Crozat, received fresh inspiration from his taste and the study of his immense collections. In 1709 he competed for the great prize, and, standing only second, applied fora crown pension to enable him to go to Italy. As proofs of his deserts, he carried to the Academy his first two pictures. His cause was warmly espoused by De la Fosse, and he was instantly made an associate of that body, becoming a full member in 1717. His diploma picture, Embarkation for the Isle of Venus, is now in the Louvre. Suffering always from lung disease, and of a highly nervous temperament, Watteau was, however, unfitted to live and work with others, and, in spite of his professional success and his assured re putation, he held himself apart, ill at ease with himself and seldom happy in his work, which suffered in sympathy with his changing moods. A visit to London further disturbed his health, and in 1721 he returned to Paris, establishing himself for a while in the house of his friend Gersaint, the picture dealer, for whom he painted a sign-board which had an extraordinary success (a fragment in the collection Schwitzer). Hoping to find rest and some alleviation to his increasing sufferings from country air, he accepted a lodging at Nogent, in the house of M. Lefebvre, which had been obtained for him through his constant friend the abbe Haranger, canon of St Germain 1 Auxerrois. At Nogent, shortly after his arrival, on 18th July 1821, Watteau died, having bequeathed to the abbe, to Gersaint, to M. Henin, and to M. Julienne the vast quantity of drawings which constituted almost the whole of his fortune. No greater contrast can bo found than that which Watteau s work presents to the painful condition under which he lived his life, a contrast such as that which the boyish glee of Caldecott s designs showed in comparison to the physical misery against which his gallant spirit made so brave a stand. Wattean sought refuge, as it were, from his bodily pain in that fairyland which he created, where the pompous art of the &quot; Grand Siecle &quot; still cumbered the ground. His work, always conceived in a poetical spirit, lived in spite of the artificial atmosphere of the mock pastoral style of the day, and lives in virtue of the exquisite precision of his observation and of the extraordinary brilliancy and lightness of his art. WATTS, ISAAC (1674-1748), theologian and hymn writer, was born at Southampton 17th July 1674. He was the eldest of nine children, and was named after his father, who kept a boarding establishment at Southampton. The father also wrote poetry, and a number of his pieces were included by mistake in vol. i. of the son s Posthumous Works. Young Watts is stated to have entered on the study of the classics when only in his fifth year, and at the age of seven or eight to have composed some devotional pieces to please his mother. His nonconformity precluded him from entering either of the universities, but in his sixteenth year he went to study at an academy in London kept by the Rev. Thomas Rowe, minister of the Inde pendent meeting at Haberdashers Hall. In his Improve ment of the Mind (1741) Watts has expounded his method of study, but the precepts there laid down can hardly be said to be justified by his example, for it is overwork at this period of his life that is believed to have caused the weak and uncertain health of his subsequent years. Prob ably it was as much from this cause as from diffidence that he deferred preaching his first sermon till the day he entered on his twenty-fourth year. Meantime he resided as tutor in the family of Sir John Hartopp at Stoke Newington, where he probably prepared the materials of his two educational works, Logick, or the Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth (1725), and The Knowledge of the Heavens and the Earth Made Easy, or the First Principles of Geography and A stronomy Explained (1726). His Logic, Dr Samuel Johnson states, &quot; had been received into the universities,&quot; but this must be regarded rather as an indication of the decadence of logical studies there than a proof of the special excellence of the work. What merits it possesses are of a hortatory and moral kind, and, as Sir William Hamilton says, it is &quot; not worth reading as a book of logic.&quot; In his twenty-fourth year Watts was chosen assistant to Dr Chauncy, pastor of the Independent congregation, Mark Lane, London, and two years later he succeeded as sole pastor. The state of his health led to the appointment of an assistant in 1703. In 1704 the congregation removed to Pinner s Hall, and in 1708 they built a new meeting-house in Bury Street. In 1712 Watts took up his residence with Sir Thomas Abney of Abney Park, where he spent the remainder of his life, the arrangement being continued by Lady Abney after her husband s death. Watts preached only occasionally, devoting his leisure chiefly to the writing of hymns, the preparation of his sermons for publication, and the com position of theological works. Being little over 5 feet in height, and far from robust in health, he did not specially excel as an orator, although the felicity of his illustrations, his transparent sincerity, and his benevolent wisdom gave to his preaching an exceptional charm. His religious opinions were more liberal in tone than was at that time common in the community to which he belonged ; his views regarding Sunday recreation and labour were scarcely of Puritanical strictness; his Calvinism was modified by his rejection of the doctrine of reprobation, and he was in the habit of representing the heaven of the Christian as affording wide scope for the exercise of the special habits and tastes formed by the employments of earth. For an estimate of Watts as a hymn writer, see HYMXS, vol. xii. p. 593. He died 25th November 1748, and was buried at Bunhill Fields, where a tombstone was erected to his memory by Sir John Hartopp and Lady Abney. A memorial was also erected to him in Westminster Abbey, and a memorial hall, erected in his honour at Southampton, Avas opened 6th May 1875. In 1706 appeared his Horse, Lyricx, of which an edition, with memoir by llobert Southey, forms vol. ix. of Sacred Classics (1834) ; in 1707 a volume of Hymns; in 1719 The Psalms of David; and in 1720 Divine and Moral Songs for Children. Various collected editions of his sacred poetry have been published, and in 1869 an edition appeared with music for four voices. Among the theo logical treatises of AVatts, in addition to volumes of sermons, are Doctrine of the Trinity (1726) ; Treatise on the Love of God and on the Use and Abuse of the Passions (1729) ; Catechisms for Children and Youth (1730); Essays towards a Proof of a Separate State for Souls (1732); Essay on the Freedom of the Will (1732); Essay on the Strength and Weakness of Human Reason (1737) ; Essay on the Ruin and Recovery of Mankind (1740) ; Glory of Christ as God-Man Unveiled (1746); and Useful and Important Questions concerning Jesus Christ (1746). He was also the author of a variety of miscel laneous treatises. His Posthumous Works appeared in 1773, and a further instalment of them in 1779. Several editions of his col lected works, with memoirs, have also been piiblished. The Life and Times of Watts by Milner appeared in 183-1; a life is also included in Johnson s Lives of the I oets. WAVE. By this term is commonly understood a state of disturbance which is propagated from one part of a medium to another. Thus it is energy which passes, and