Presence Only persons are present. Persons are “here”; things are “there.” Persons are present to other persons. The presence of a person is not the mere presence of an object: if I knock you down bodily in a crowd without recognizing you, we are not present to each other. So presence is not merely physical. But neither is it merely mental: the idea in your mind of a friend who is absent is not the same as his real presence. Nor is presence both physical and mental together: if I accidentally knock