John Norris

John Norris (1657–1711) was a philosopher and poet. Born at Collingbourne, Kingston, Wiltshire, 1657, he was educated at Winchester School, and Exeter College, Oxford, gaining a B.A. in 1680. He was later appointed a fellow of All Souls (M.A. 1684). He took orders, and lived a quiet and placid life as a country parson and thinker.

Quotes

• How fading are the joys we dote upon!
  Like apparitions seen and gone.
  But those which soonest take their flight
  Are the most exquisite and strong,—
  Like angels’ visits, short and bright;
  Mortality ’s too weak to bear them long.
  • The Parting. Compare: "Like those of angels, short and far between", Robert Blair, The Grave, line 588.; "Like angel visits, few and far between", Thomas Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, part ii. line 378.

• ....but I use the word (devotion) in a greater latitude so as to comprehend under it faith, hope, love, fear, trust, humility, submission, honour , reverence, adoration, thanksgiving in a word all that duty which we owe to God.
  • Reason and Religion; or, The Grounds and Measures of Devotion. Part I, Introduction, Section VIII.