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Quintessence
The fifth essence. The ancient Greeks said there are four
elements or forms in which matter can
exist- fire, or the imponderable form; air, or the gaseous form;
water, or the liquid form; and earth, or the solid form. The
Pythagoreans added a fifth, which they called ether, more
subtile and pure than fire, and possessed of an orbicular motion. This
element, which flew upwards at creation, and out of which the stars
were made, was called the fifth essence; quintessence therefore
means the most subtile extract of a body that can be procured. It is
quite an error to suppose that the word means an essence five times
distilled, and that the term came from the alchemists. Horace speaks of
“kisses which Venus has imbued with the quintessence of her own
nectar.”
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements- earth, flood, air, fire;
But this ethereal quintessence of heaven
Flew upward ... and turned to stars
Numberless as thou seest.
Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 716.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Quintessence from Infoplease:
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