ll heavy things agree in
weight, all round things in roundness, all red things in redness; and an
abstract term denotes such a point (or points) of agreement among the
things denoted by concrete terms. Abstract terms result from the
analysis of concrete things into their qualities; and conversely a
concrete term may be viewed as denoting the synthesis of qualities into
an individual thing. When several things agree in more than one quality,
there may be an abstract term denoting the union of qualities in which
they agree, and omitting their peculiarities; as 'human nature' denotes
the common qualities of men, 'civilisation' the common conditions of
civilised peoples.

Every general name, if used as a concrete term, has, or may have, a
corresponding abstract term. Sometimes the concrete term is modified to
form the abstract, as 'greedy--greediness'; sometimes a word is adapted
from another language, as 'man--humanity'; sometimes a composite term is
used, as 'mercury--the nature of mercury,' etc. The same concrete may
have several abstract correlatives, as 'man--manhood, humanity, human
nature'; 'heavy--weight, gravity, ponderosity'; but in such cases the
abstract terms are not used quite synonymously; that is, they imply
different ways of considering the concrete.

Whether a word is used as a concrete or abstract term is in most
instances plain from the word itself, the use of most words being pretty
regular one way or the other; but sometimes we must judge by the
context. 'Weight' may be used in the abstract for 'gravity,' or in the
concrete for a measure; but in the latter sense it is syncategorematic
(in the singular), needing at least the article 'a (or the) weight.'
'Government' may mean 'supreme political authority,' and is then
abstract; or, the men who happen to be ministers, and is then concrete;
but in this case, too, the article is usually prefixed. 'The life' of
any man may mean his vitality (abstract), as in "Thus following life in
creatures we dissect"; or, the series of events through which he passes
(concrete), as in 'the life of Nelson as narrated by Southey.'

It has been made a question whether the denotation of an abstract term
may itself be the subject of qualities. Apparently 'weight' may be
greater or less, 'government' good or bad, 'vitality' intense or dull.
But if every subject is modified by a quality, a quality is also
modified by making it the subject of another; and, if so, it seems then