There is in modern literature a whole class of writers, though not a large one, standing within the same category; some marked originality of character in the writer become a coefficient with what he says to a common result; you must sympathize with this personality in the author before you can appreciate the most significant parts of his views.
"Biographical Essays"
Thomas de Quincey
For you see, if a man is trying to make a model aeroplane-for a poor family in the lower part of the town-and he is brought to a stop by the need of reckoning the coefficient of torsion of cast-iron rods, it shows plainly enough that the colleges are not truly filling their divine mission.
"Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town"
Stephen Leacock
The same difference is illustrated by any technical terms: coefficient and exponent in algebra, triangle and square in their geometric as distinct from their popular meanings; capital and value as used in political economy, and so on.
"How We Think"
John Dewey