"Metaphysics, to speak exactly——"
"Ah," interrupted the Schoolmaster, "bring it down to vulgar fractions, and then we shall understand it."
"'Tis the consideration of immateriality, or the mere spirit and essence of things."
"Come, come," said Aunt Judy, taking a pinch of snuff, "now I see into it."
"Thus, man is considered, not in his corporeality, but in his essence or capability of being; for a man, metaphysically, or to metaphysical purposes, hath two natures, that of spirituality, and that of corporeality, which may be considered separate."
"What man?" asked Uncle Tim.
"Why, any man; Malachi there, for example; I may consider him as Malachi spiritual, or Malachi corporeal."
"That is true," said Malachi, "for when I was in the militia they made me a sixteenth corporal, and I carried grog to the drummer."
"That is another affair," said the Doctor in continuation; "we speak of man in his essence; we speak, also, of the essence of locality, the essence of duration—"
"And essence of peppermint," said Aunt Judy.