Some of these extravagant enthusiasts fancied that life resembled a
flame, from which the body derived warmth, spirit, and animation. They
endeavoured to cherish and increase the flame, and supplied the body
with materials to feed it, as we pour oil into a burning lamp. Others
imagined they had discovered something invisible and incorporeal in the
air, that important medium which supports the life of man. They
pretended to catch, refine, reduce, and materialize this indefinable
something, so that it might be swallowed in the form of powders, and
drops; that, by its penetrating powers, it might insinuate itself into
the whole animal frame, invigorate, and consequently qualify it for a
longer duration.
Others again were foolish enough to indulge a notion that they could
divest themselves of the properties of matter during this life; that in
this manner they might be defended against the gradual approaches of
dissolution, to which every animal body is subject: and that thus
fortified, without quitting their terrestrial tabernacle, they could
associate at pleasure with the inhabitants of the spiritual world.
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