Literary notes about empyreal (AI summary)
The term "empyreal" in literature has long been employed to evoke the sublime and the divine, often symbolizing a realm far removed from mundane earthly existence. For instance, it is used to denote a purer, exalted substance—as seen when Scheele’s "empyreal air" is contrasted with the common air of the earth [1]—and to craft images of celestial expanses that inspire spiritual elevation [2]. Poets and dramatists extend its use metaphorically, describing not only the glowing, otherworldly light of a transcendent flame [3] or the melodious calls from the empyreal heavens [4] but also conveying human aspirations to rise above mortal constraints and touch a higher plane of existence [5, 6]. This rich spectrum of meaning underscores the word’s enduring power to merge scientific wonder with poetic and metaphysical rapture.
- Mr Priestley gave it the name of dephlogisticated air , Mr Scheele called it empyreal air .
— from Elements of Chemistry,In a New Systematic Order, Containing all the Modern Discoveries by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier - Short while a Pilgrim in our nether world, Do thou enjoy the calm empyreal air; And round this earthly tomb let roses rise, An everlasting spring!
— from A Manual of Italian Literature by Francis Henry Cliffe - Such was the host that to the conflict came, Their bosoms kindling with empyreal flame
— from The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch by Francesco Petrarca - His voice, melodious and thrilling as the silver trumpets of the empyreal heavens, sounded through space, as it called “Zephon!”
— from Home Scenes and Heart Studies by Grace Aguilar - "Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air."— Milton.
— from Letters on Astronomy in which the Elements of the Science are Familiarly Explained in Connection with Biographical Sketches of the Most Eminent Astronomers by Denison Olmsted - Nine; the seven planets, the firmament, and the empyreal heaven.
— from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
