Angels' Visits

Campbell's famous line, "Like angels visits, few and far between," has been clearly shown by a correspondent in another paper, to be all but copied from Blair:— "like an ill-used ghost Not to return; or if it did, its visits Like those of angels, short and far between." Blair's Grave. But the same phrase, though put differently, occurs in a religious poem of Norris of Bemerton, who died in 1711:— "But those who soonest take their flight, Are the most exquisite and strong, Like angels visits, short and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long."