 Thus, to compare a “curved” (coiled) rope with a “straight” (uncoiled) one is not really to talk about the lengths of lines in two different species; it is to talk about two ropes. To describe the one as curved (coiled) and the other as straight (uncoiled) is not to appeal to specifically different kinds of entities—curvature and straightness—but merely to describe the ropes in ways that can be expounded according to two different patterns. Since such talk does not have ontological implications that require specifically different kinds of entities, the Aristotelian prohibition of metabasis does not apply.