Watts, I.; Dwight, Timothy. The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, And applied to the Christian Worship. A new Edition, In which the Psalms omitted by Dr. Watts are versified, local passages are altered, and a number of Psalms are versified anew, in proper Metres; By Timothy Dwight, D. D. President of Yale College. At the Request of the General Association of Connecticut. To the Psalms is added, a Selection of Hymns. Hartford: Printed by Hudson and Goodwin, 1801. First Edition. [9976]
Full leather, scuffed and worn yet intact, front joint weak, lacks the front free end papers, 13.5 x 7.5 cm (5 3/8 x 3 inches). [i]-[viii], [9]-350, [23] Index & Table, [1], [375]-583, [xvii] Table & Index. Text leaves complete, tight. Good..
An early impression with "PUBLISHED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS" on verso of tp. This Psalter was seen as a replacement for the one made by Barlow, who had gone off to France in support of the French Revolution.
"This well-packaged title-page is the placid record of an ecclesiastical scandal and tragedy. In 1785, precisely the same revision of Dr. Watts's psalm-book had been made by Joel Barlow, under the sanction of the same authority, and had been issued by the same publishing house. The book had given universal satisfaction, until poor Joel went over to France, and dabbled in the French Revolution, and fell, as was supposed, into all manner of French impiety and abomination. Of course, the saints of Connecticut could not be expected to enjoy any longer the psalms and hymns of the great sinner of Paris; and the task of President Dwight, as recorded on the above title-page, was really to demephitize and disinfect the book; it was to cast out of it all the writings of Joel, and to put into it, in their stead, as many as possible of the writings of Timothy." - Moses Coit Tyler, Three Men of Letters, as quoted in Benson, The American Revisions of Watts's Psalms, p. 20.
"After the American Revolution, it became early the general wish of the Churches and Congregations in this country, that such passages in Doctor Watts's version of the Psalms, as were local [i.e. British], and inapplicable to our own circumstances...In making such alterations to Doctor Watts's version, as respected objects merely local, I have in some instances applied the Psalm, or the passage, to the Church at large, or to Christian nations generally; and in others, particularly, to our own country." - Advertisement.
The second title page has Hymns selected from Dr. Watts, Dr. Doddridge, and various other writers. According to the Recommendation of the Joint Committee of the General Association of Connecticut, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America. By Timothy Dwight, President of Yale-College. Same imprint as above. Pagination is continuous with the Psalms.
Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., (1752-1817), grandson of Jonathan Edwards, born at Northampton, MA. Dwight graduated at Yale College at the age of 17, in 1769. He served in the army during the American Revolution, as a chaplain to General Parson’s brigade. His father’s death in 1778 necessitated a return to his family home to take care of his mother, which he did by teaching school and by preaching. In 1783 he accepted a call to become the pastor of the parish of Greenfield, CT. In 1795 he was elected president of Yale College and served in this capacity until 1817. "During this period there were no less than four distinct revivals of religion at the College." - Roberts.
With a signed provenance card from the music collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.