abstract i

(pl. of abstract us, pa. par. of abstraho ). [ABSTRACT.] Church Hist. A Luther an sect in the sixteenth century. Their leader was Heshusius, a Pru ian bishop who contended, against Beza, that not only was Christ to be adored in the concrete as the Son of God, but that his flesh, in the abstract, was an object of adoration. abs-tract-ing, pr . par . [ABSTRACT, v.t. ] abs-trăc-tion, s. [In Fr. abstraction; Lat. abstractio = a separation; abstraho = to drag away: abs from; traho = to draw or drag.] I. The act of dragging or drawing away or separating. IMG:content-0058.png:[blocks in formation] a wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community, for the profit of the Government, or of the tax-payers."-J. S. Mill : Polit . Econ the abstraction of four equivalents of water."-Graham: Chemistry. 2. Mentally: (a) Absence or absorption of mind. "What answers Lara? to its centre shrunk His soul in deep abstraction sudden sunk." Byron: Lara, i. 23. (b) The separation from the world of a recluse; disregard of worldly objects by an unworldly person. "A hermit wishes to be praised for his abstraction." -Pope: Letters. III. That which is abstracted. A mental conception formed by abstraction. "Give us, for our abstractions, solid facts." Words worth: Excursion, bk. v. IV. The power or faculty of the mind by which a person is able to single out from a complex mental conception the particular idea which he wishes to make the subject of reflection. [See L. (B. 2).]