| Citation |
NJJ.783.025
12 Mar 1783:33 (213)
Application having been made to the printer, by some of the
neighbouring parishes for a number of psalm books for the
use of the society, (the present mode of singing, by giving
out the line, being thought so dissonant and unharmonious,)
he begs leave to lay the following before the publick:
Proposals for printing by subscription, Watts's psalms.
Conditions.
I. They will be printed on a new type, (cast by Mr. Fox, of
Pennsylvania) and good paper.
II. They will be put to press as soon as one thousand are
subscribed for.
III. The price to subscribers will be three and sixpence for
each copy, bound in leather, one half to be paid at the time
of subscribing, the other half on the delivery of the book.
Dr. Watts, in his advertisement to the readers, says, "It
were to be wished that all congregations and private
families would sing as they do in foreign protestant
countries without reading line by line. Though the author
has done what he could to make the sense complete in every
line or two, yet many inconveniencies will always attend
this unhappy manner of singing; but where it cannot be
altered, these two things may give some relief.
I. Let as many as can do it bring psalm-books with them,
and look on the words while they sing, so far as to make the
sense complete.
II. Let the clerk read the whole psalm over aloud before he
begins to parcel out the lines, that the people may have
some notion of what they sing, and not be forced to drag on
heavily through eight tedious syllables without any meaning,
till the next lines come to give the sense of them."
The printer expects that the different societies will
ascertain the number of books they may want, and transmit
them to him without delay. Non subscribers must not expect
a single book at the price above proposed.
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