THE IMPROVEMENT

OF

THE MIND.

THE

IMPROVEMENT

OF

THE MIND.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A DISCOURSE ON THE EDUCATION OF
CHILDREN AND YOUTH.

BY

ISAAC WATTS, D.D.

WITH DR JOHNSON'S LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

AND A PORTRAIT.

EDINBURGH:

JOHN ANDERSON, JUN, 55. NORTH BRIDGE STREET,
EDINBURGH; BEILBY & KNOTTS, BIRMINGHAM ;
AND T. TEGG, LONDON.

Printed by Walker & Greig, Edinburgh.

CONTENTS.

Life of the Author

Preface, Part I.

Preface, Part II.

The Introduction

3

Chap. I. General rules for the improvement of

knowledge

Chap. II. Five methods of improving, described and

compared, viz. Observation, reading, instruction by

lectures, conversation, and study, with their several

advantages and defects

20

Chap. III. Of observation, either by the senses or the

mind

Chap. IV. Of reading and books, with directions relat-
ing thereto

Chap. V. The judgment of books, both approbation and

censure

Chap. VI. Of living instructions and lectures, of

teachers and learners

Chap. VII. Of learning a language, particularly the

Latin

Chap. VIII. Of inquiring into the sense and meaning

of any writer or speaker, whether human or divine

Chap. IX. Of conversation and profiting by it, and of

persons fit or unfit for free converse

Chap. X. Of disputes, and general rules relating to

them

107

Chap. XI. Of Socratical disputation, by question and

answer

122

-

Chap. XIII. Of academic or scholastic disputes, and
the rules of them, and how far they may be useful
Chap. XIV. Of study, or meditation, and the final de-
termination of things by our own judgment

Chap. XV. Of fixing the attention

Chap. XII. Of forensic disputes, in courts of justice or

public assemblies

125

Chap. XVI. Of enlarging the capacity of the mind

Chap. XVII. Of the memory, and the improvement

- 158

thereof

- 179