48 EXPRESSION. 



and a similar difficulty may be felt at the applica- 

 tion of such words as " advance," not to movement 

 in space but to conditions of other than physical 

 description. 



But very little consideration will make such 

 difficulties disappear. They do not exist in re- 

 lation to many of the words enumerated above ; 

 for magnitude, resistance, and motion, three of 

 the heads used in the enumeration, are obviously 

 ideas not confined to objects in space, though 

 primarily the words refer to physical objects, ac- 

 dording to the general rule of words with a physical 

 and metaphysical application. As regards words 

 expressing distance, it will be noted that " near " or 

 " far " remains the same idea, whether the degree of 

 deviation from identity contemplated refers to time, 

 space, or constitution ; while attraction or repulsion 

 is the mere tendency to passage from one degree 

 of nearness to another, whether in space or in 

 constitution. 



In such expressions as " advance " and " retro- 

 gression " we have still to deal with distance ; only 

 in this instance it is distance from a goal more or 

 less distinctly imagined as an object of desire, 

 whether it be a spot on earth to which we bend 

 our steps, or some intellectual, moral or artistic 

 perfection, or whatever else ; while the character 



