'Here we are, Mr. Richard, rising with the sun to run our little course--our course of duty, sir.'
Dr. Watts makes several appearances, Dickens made the acquaintance of this noted hymnist in early youth (see p. 7), and makes good use of his knowledge. In _The Cricket on the Hearth_ Mrs. Peerybingle asks John if he ever learnt 'How doth the little' when he went to school. 'Not to quite know it,' John returned. 'I was very near it once.' Another of the Doctor's hymns is suggested by the behaviour of the Young Tetterbys (_H.M._).
The contentions between the Tetterbys' children for the milk and water jug, common to all, which stood upon the table, presented so lamentable an instance of angry passions risen very high indeed, that it was an outrage on the memory of Dr. Watts.
The pages of history abound with instances of misguided amateurs who have amended the hymns (and tunes) of others in order to bring them into their way of thinking, and a prominent place in their ranks must be assigned to Miss Monflathers (_O.C.S._), who managed to parody the good Doctor's meaning to an alarming extent and to insist that
is only applicable to _genteel_ children, while all poor people's children, such as Little Nell, should spend their time.
In work, work, work. In work alway, Let my first years be passed, That I may give for ev'ry day Some good account at last,
which is far from the good Doctor's meaning.
Dr. Strong, David Copperfield's second schoolmaster, was fond of quoting this great authority on mischief, but Mr. Wickfield suggests that Dr. Watts, had he known mankind well, would also have written 'Satan finds some mischief still for busy hands to do.'
Some years ago a question was raised in _Notes and Queries_ as to the identity of the 'No. 4 Collection' of hymns which appeared to afford consolation to Job Trotter. No answer was vouchsafed, the fact being that the title is a pure invention, and no such collection has ever existed. It is scarcely necessary to add that history is silent as to the identity of the hymn-book which Uriah Heep was reading when David Copperfield and others visited him in prison.
We are indebted to Dickens for the introduction to the literary world of Adelaide Procter, many of whose sacred verses have found their way into our hymnals. The novelist wrote an introduction to her _Legends and Lyrics_, in which he tells the story of how, as editor of _Household Words_, he accepted verses sent him from time to time by a Miss Mary Berwick, and only discovered, some months later, that his contributor was the daughter of his friend Procter, who was known under the _nom de plume_ of Barry Cornwall.