Advice to Young People on the Improvement of the Mind from Isaac Watts


We are all familiar with Isaac Watts for his wonderful hymns, but did you know that he was also a thoughtful and great writer on logic and the improvement of the mind?

Read this excerpt from Improvement of the Mind by Isaac Watts. It was written with young men and women in mind and the advice is excellent.

I like this excerpt because he warns against what I see happening everywhere in American culture today - the elevation of the trivial to importance, and vice versa.
XII. He, that would raise his judgments above the vulgar
rank of mankind, and learn to pass a just sentence on
persons and things, must take heed of a fanciful temper of  mind,
and a humorous conduct in his affairs. Fancy and  humor, early
and constantly indulged, may expect an old  age over-run with follies.

A humorist is one that is greatly pleased or greatly dis-
pleased with little things ; who sets his heart much upon
matters of very small importance ; who has his will deter
mined every day by trifles, his actions seldom directed by
the reason and nature of things, and his passions frequently
raised by things of little moment. Where this practice is
allowed, it will insensibly warp the judgment to pronounce
little things great, and tempt you to lay a great weight upon
them. In short, this temper will incline you to pass an un-
just value on almost every thing that occurs ; and every  step,
that you take in this path, is just so far out of the way
to wisdom.

XIII. For the same reason, have a care of trifling with
things important and momentous, or of sporting with things
awful and sacred. Do not indulge a spirit of ridicule as
some witty men do on all occasions and subjects. This
will as unhappily bias the judgment on the other side, and
incline you to pass a low esteem on the most valuable  objects.
Whatsoever evil habit we indulge in practice, it  will insensibly
obtain a power over our understanding, and  betray us into many errors.

Jocander is ready with his  jest, to answer every thing that he hears.
He reads books  m the same jovial humor, and has got the art of turning
every thought and sentence into merriment How many  awkward and irregular
judgments does this man pass upon  solemn subjects, even when he
designs to be grave and in  earnest? His mirth and laughing humor
is formed into  habit and temper, and leads his understanding shamefully
astray. You will see him wandering in pursuit of a
flying feather, and he is drawn by a sort of ignis fatuus
into bogs and mire, almost every day of his life.

XIY. Ever maintain a virtuous and pious frame of spirit;
for an indulgence of vicious inclinations debases the understanding
and perverts the judgment. Licentiousness
and new wine, take away the health; and soul and reason
of a man. Sensuality ruins the better faculties of the
mind. An indulgence of appetite and passion enfeebles
the powers of reason ; it makes the judgment weak and
susceptible of every falsehood, and especially of such mis-
takes, as have a tendency towards the gratification of the
animal ; and it warps the soul aside strangely from that
steadiest honesty and integrity, {hut necessarily belongs to
the pursuit of truth. It is the virtuous man, who is in a fair way to
wisdom. ^^ God gives to those, that are good in  his sight,
wisdom and knowledge and joy." Ec. 2:26. Piety toward God, as
well as sobriety and virtue, are  necessary qualifications to make
a truly wise and judicious  man. He, that abandons religion,
must act in such a contradiction to his own conscience and best
judgment, that  he abuses and spoils the faculty itself. It is thus
in the  nature of things ; and it is thus by the righteous judg-
ment of God. Even the pretended sages among the Heathens, "who
did not like to retain God in their knowledge, were given
up to a reprobate mind;" an undistinguishing  or injudicious
mind, so that they judged inconsistently, and  practiced mere
absurdities. Rom. 1:28.

http://archive.org/details/improvementmind00emergoog

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