matter abstractly considered

Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no one to play the possum with me.

It can no more survive as a plutodemocracy than it could, before the Civil War, survive half slave and half free.

[…] consequently, Lost-withiel, as a compound name, would signify the tented encampment of the stranger, an epithet fairly applicable to the first settlers in that locality, who doubtless migrated thither over-sea, and like most venatic tribes without settled residence, dwelt in tents.