having (or consisting of) qualities and a determinate existence. Thus
'cricket ball' denotes any object having a certain size, weight, shape,
colour, etc. (which are its qualities), and being at any given time in
some place and related to other objects--in the bowler's hands, on the
grass, in a shop window. Any 'feeling of heat' has a certain intensity,
is pleasurable or painful, occurs at a certain time, and affects some
part or the whole of some animal. An imagination, indeed (say, of a
fairy), cannot be said in the same sense to have locality; but it
depends on the thinking of some man who has locality, and is definitely
related to his other thoughts and feelings.

A term is Abstract, on the other hand, when it denotes a quality (or
qualities), considered by itself and without determinate existence in
time, place, or relation to other things. 'Size,' 'shape,' 'weight,'
'colour,' 'intensity,' 'pleasurableness,' are terms used to denote such
qualities, and are then abstract in their denotation. 'Weight' is not
something with a determinate existence at a given time; it exists not
merely in some particular place, but wherever there is a heavy thing;
and, as to relation, at the same moment it combines in iron with
solidity and in mercury with liquidity. In fact, a quality is a point of
agreement in a multitude of different things; all 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