TRANSMISSION OF THE FLAME
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Now we go on to the next step. Suppose the flame reaches the bottom of the candle, we take a new candle, put its wick to the flame of the old candle and catch the flame from the old candle to the new one; then the flame on the old candle goes out. So the flame has now been transmitted to the new candle. Is it the same flame or a different flame? From one angle we can say it is the same flame because it follows in continuity, it belongs to the same series. But now the flame is burning with a new physical base, with a new candle as its support. It is burning up new particles of air, new pieces of wax, a new section of wick. We say it is the same flame as the flame of the old candle because it caught fire from that and it continues the succession. But there is no absolute identity of one flame with the other, because of the conditions contributing to that flame. But we can't say that it is a different flame. To call it a different flames would not be in conformity with conventional usage.
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