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James Thomson and John Norris

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Herbert Drennon
Herbert Drennon*
Affiliation:
Mississippi State College
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Extract

In a previous article I showed that James Thomson's juvenile poem, “The Works and Wonders of Almighty Power,” was for the most part a paraphrase of certain passages in the Moralists, a philosophical rhapsody, by the Earl of Shaftesbury. Another one of Thomson's juvenile poems, “Upon Happiness,” contributed to The Edinburgh Miscellany in 1720, was inspired by a letter John Norris wrote at All-Souls College, April 18, 1683, entitled “An Idea of Happiness: Enquiring wherein the greatest Happiness Attainable by Man in this Life does consist.” In addition, Thomson was perhaps indebted to John Norris for some of the general treatment of theme found in his “Preface” to the second edition of Winter (1726).

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 1938 , pp. 1094 - 1101
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938

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References

Note 1 in page 1094 “The Source of James Thomson's ‘The Works and Wonders of Almighty Power,‘” MP, xxxii, 1 (August, 1934), 33–36.

Note 2 in page 1094 The letter is found (pp. 317–350) in a Collection of Miscellanies: Consisting of Poems, Discourses & Letters, Occasionally Written. By John Norris, Rector of Bemerlon near Sarum. The Fourth Edition, carefully Revised, Corrected, and Improved by the Authour. London, 1706.

Note 3 in page 1094 As late as 1736 Thomson, in using the phrase “moral gravitation” (see Liberty, Part v, 11. 245–261) echoed a discussion by John Norris in another treatise. Norris had written: “This first Alteration of the Soul from good answers to Gravity in Bodys, and may be call'd for distinction sake the Moral Gravity of the Soul, the Second to Gravitation or actual Pressure, and may as fitly be call'd the Moral Gravitation of the Soul.” See The Theory and Regulation of Love, A Moral Essay. In Two Parts (Oxford, 1688), p. 11. According to Norris, the soul by virtue of moral gravitation is drawn to God, the central magnet; according to Thomson, the self by virtue of moral gravitation is drawn to the public good. Norris later shows how this moral gravitation of the soul, “exercised without any design of Prospect,” tends benevolently and unselfishly toward good (pp. 50, 51, 58–60). This “good” is the public good which Thomson had in mind when he wrote the passage referrred to above. Norris's own indebtedness to Nicolas Malebranche does not concern us here.

Note 4 in page 1095 “Upon Happiness,” 11. 134–159.

Note 5 in page 1095 Norris, pp. 337–338.

Note 6 in page 1095 Ibid., pp. 324 ff.

Note 7 in page 1096 “Upon Happiness,” 11. 62–71.

Note 8 in page 1096 Norris, p. 331.

Note 9 in page 1096 Ibid., p. 340.

Note 10 in page 1096 “Upon Happiness,” 11. 84–101.

Note 11 in page 1097 Noms, p. 19.—This ecstatic love of infinite beauty (God) finds expression in the writings of Henry Needier, another careful reader of John Norris. In a letter to Mr. H., written at Portsmouth, November, 1711, he discusses Norris's Theory of The Ideal World (1704), writing such rapturous passages as the following: “O Wisdom! how boundless are thy Treasures? how inexhaustible thy Stores? who dost afford sufficient Matter for the eternal Contemplation of an Infinite Mind; and whose pure Fountains perpetually quench the Thirst of the whole Intelligent Creation, without being in the least diminish'd. How shou'd we be transported with thy Divine Beauties? how ravish'd with thy Charms, if these thick films of Mortality, which now, like Clouds, intercept the Rays, and conceal thee from our Sight, were once remov'd; and we admitted to a clear and open Vision of thee?” See The Works of Mr. Henry Needier . . . published by Mr. Duncombe, 3 ed. (London, 1735), pp. 209–210. See also Needler's “On The Excellency of Divine Contemplation” (Works, pp. 51–52), which is likewise done in the manner of John Norris.

Note 12 in page 1098 From “Sitting in an Arbour,” Norris, p. 33.

Note 13 in page 1099 From “To Dr. Plot, on his Natural History of Staffordshire,” Norris, p. 102.

Note 14 in page 1099 Norris, pp. 60–61.

Note 15 in page 1099 Poetical Works, ed. by J. Logie Robertson (London, 1908), p. 241.—In my article on “Scientific Rationalism and James Thomson's Poetic Art,” SP, xxxi, 3 (July, 1934), 453–471, 1 sought to prove that some of the views expressed in Thomson's “Preface” to Winter (1726), concerning the nature, purpose, and subject-matter of poetry, are closely akin to views expressed by the divines and natural philosophers of the latter part of the seventeenth and the first part of the eighteenth century when they wrote concerning the beauty, variety, and magnificence of nature as an inspiring theme for man's contemplation. Though I did not discuss John Norris in this connection, I could well have done so, for the evidence shows that the rector of Bemerton was a poetic lover of nature and nature's God, and that Thomson read him carefully and drew inspiration from him.

Note 16 in page 1100 See “Of Solitude,” Norris, pp. 125–131. Cf. Needier, Works, pp. 90 ff. Like Shaftesbury, Needier, and Thomson, Norris loved to escape from the world of “business” in order to woo inspiration in the world of solitude.

Note 17 in page 1100 Norris, pp. 245–246. Cf. Needier, Works, pp. 92–93.

Note 18 in page 1100 Winter (1746), 1. 573.

Note 19 in page 1100 In Miscellanies, no pagination.