Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Visits
Like those of angels, short and far between.
Blair.—The Grave.
Like angel-visits, few and far between.
Campbell.—Pleasures of Hope, Part II.
Like angels’ visits, short and bright.
John Norris.—Born 1657, died 1711; Author of Poems, Essays, Letters, and Discourses, &c.; and the thought appears again in his Elegy on his Niece, where we read—
Angels, as ’tis but seldom they appear,
So neither do they make long stay;
They do but visit, and away.
See “The Christian Poet,” 1828, by James Montgomery.
So few and rare between.
Hesiod.—On Works, Div. II. Line 398. (Valpy’s Ed. translated by Elton.)