"The same spirit, which made the Greeks people the winds and the waves, the rivers and the trees, with gods; which makes the savage regard the compass needle as animated; and the child demand to see in some visible shape, the motive principle of a watch or moving toy; led the Chemists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to declare that a candle burned because it contained a burning principle."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Life_of_the_Honble_Henry_Cavendish