Date: 1661

"What difference is there 'twixt a man and beast, / (None sure at all, or little to be guest) / If't wan't for Reason, and an immortal spark, / Which hides it self within his hollow Ark?"

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1664

"The parts of the blood which penetrate as far as the brain serve not only to nourish and sustain its substance, but also and primarily to produce in it a certain very fine wind, or rather a very lively and pure flame, which is called the animal spirits."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1665

"Absence lessens moderate passions and intensifies great ones, as the wind blows out a candle but fans up a fire"

— La Rochefoucauld, François, duc de (1613-1680)

Date: 1665

"But as though grains of Sand and Ashes be a part, but of a despicable smallness, and very easie, and liable to be scatter'd, and blown away; yet the skilful Artificer, by a vehement Fire, brings Numbers of these to afford him that noble substance, Glass, by whose help we may both see our selves,...

— Boyle, Robert (1627-1691)

Date: 1674

"And as for the Bipartition of this Sensitive Soul into two principle members as it were, or active sourses; vix. the Fiery part, upon which Life depends; and the Lucid, from whence all the faculties Animal are, like so many distinct rayes of light, derived."

— Charleton, Walter (1620-1707)

Date: 1670, rev. 1678

"It's a lightening before death ... This is generally observed of sick persons, that a little before they die their pains leave them, and their understanding and memory return to them; as a candle just before it goes out gives a great blaze."

— Ray [formerly Wray], John (1627-1705)

Date: 1678

"I writing of the Way / And Race of Saints, in this our Gospel-Day, / Fell suddenly into an Allegory / About their Journey, and the way to Glory, / In more than twenty things, which I set down; / This done, I twenty more had in my Crown, / And they again began to multiply, / Like sparks that from...

— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)

Date: 1678

"The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of Grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts Water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil."

— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)

Date: 1678

"Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his House, he would sell me for a Slave."

— Bunyan, John (bap. 1628, d. 1688)

Date: 1679

"The Soul's God's Candle, a light of acceptation"

— Keach, Benjamin (1640-1704)