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Read & copy
“Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us.”
Meaning & context
Browne uses the image of flame to contrast fragile embodied life with the inward spiritual principle through which he interprets mortality and immortality.
Source details
Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, Chapter V, Project Gutenberg #586. The represented 1869 J. W. Willis Bund collection states that its Hydriotaphia text is taken from the 1686 folio edition. “Life is a pure flame” occurs inside Browne’s Christian meditation on burial, resurrection, mortality and posthumous memory; the “invisible sun” is metaphysical-religious imagery, not scientific evidence.