E-grāmata: Improvement of the Mind

Isaac Watts is best known for his enormous contribution to hymnody in the English language. A giant who composed and adapted such classics as ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Our God, our help in ages past’ could hardly avoid a reputation like his as the father of British hymnody as we know it today. It is the simple truth however that his achievements reached more widely than his lyrical writings. After his youth, a reflective life as a minister and sometime invalid left Watts with the passionate desire to share the benefit of his careful observation.

Originally The Improvement of the Mind was published as a supplement for Watt’s earlier work ‘Logic’, however it has also been widely popular as a Christian manual for education and a standalone. Watts details with admirable thoroughness everything from how to make observations effectively through to improving the memory, receiving instruction with greater retention and the appropriate learning attitude.

As a religious non-conformist who declined encouragement to work towards the Anglican priesthood in his youth, it should come as no surprise that Watts’ way of thinking about pedagogy was also off-piste for his time. He champions ideas such as the encouragement of natural curiosity and the exercise of reason alongside revelation in order to identify the correct way to act, and more importantly the correct way to think.

Philosophy readers, students and those with theological interests are extremely well catered for in this ever-topical work. Readers need only take Watts’ advice and ‘Let the enlargement of knowledge be one constant view and design in life’.