Hymns and Moral Songs by Isaac Watts, Revised and Altered Anonymously

Isaac Watts (1674-1748).
Dr. Watts's Hymns and Moral Songs for the Use of Children, Revised and Altered. To Which are Added, Prayers for the Use of Children. By a Lady.
London: Printed by Permission of the Proprietors, for J. Johnson, 1787. (BRB0795)

In a preface dated November 17, 1785, the anonymous editor (identified only as “E.Y.”) writes that “Dr. Watts’s Divine Songs have been deservedly much admired for their easy and familiar versification; and have received an honourable testimony of their answering the design of the benevolent author, from the pleasure and avidity with which they are generally received by those children, into whose hands they have been put.” Nevertheless, the editor found certain of the original author’s doctrines and phrases objectionable and “judged it expedient to make many alterations in both these respects.” This second edition of these revisions, with an advertisement dated October 23, 1787, includes twenty-seven hymns, short religious texts (including the Ten Commandments) in verse, seven songs, two morning and two evening prayers in prose, and concludes with the Lord’s Prayer.