Natural

Natural - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

NATURAL, a. [to be born or produced]

1. Pertaining to nature; produced or effected by nature, or by the laws of growth, formation or motion impressed on bodies or beings by divine power. Thus we speak of the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color; natural beauty. In this sense, natural is opposed to artificial or acquired.

2. According to the stated course of things. Poverty and shame are the natural consequences of certain vices.

3. Not forced; not far fetched; such as is dictated by nature. The gestures of the orator are natural.

4. According to the life; as a natural representation of the face.

5. Consonant to nature.

Fire and warmth go together, and so seem to carry with them as natural an evidence as self-evident truths themselves.

6. Derived from nature, as opposed to habitual. The love of pleasure is natural ; the love of study is usually habitual or acquired.

7. Discoverable by reason; not revealed; as natural religion.

8. Produced or coming in the ordinary course of things, or the progress or animals and vegetables; as a natural death; opposed to violent or premature.

9. Tender; affectionate by nature.

10. Unaffected; unassumed; according to truth and reality.

What can be more natural than the circumstances of the behavior of those women who had lost heir husbands on this fatal day?

11. Illegitimate; born out of wedlock; as a natural son.

12. Native; vernacular; as ones natural language.

13. Derived from the study of the works or nature; as natural knowledge.

14. A natural note, in music, is that which is according to the usual order of the scale; opposed to flat and sharp notes, which are called artificial.

Natural history, in its most extensive sense, is the description of whatever is created, or of the whole universe, including the heavens and the earth, and all the productions of the earth. But more generally, natural history is limited to a description of the earth and its productions, including zoology, botany, geology, mineralogy, meteorology, _ c.

Natural philosophy, the science of material natural bodies, of their properties, powers and motions. It is distinguished from intellectual and moral philosophy, which respect the mind or understanding of man and the qualities of actions. Natural philosophy comprehends mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, astronomy, chimistry, magnetism, eletricity, galvanism, _ c.

NATURAL, n.

1. An idiot; one born without the usual powers of reason or understanding. This is probably elliptical for natural fool.

2. A native; an original inhabitant.

3. Gift of nature; natural quality.

Nature - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

NATURE, n. [L. from nature, born, produced,]

1. In a general sense, whatever is made or produced; a word that comprehends all the works of God; the universe. Of a phoenix we say, there is no such thing in nature.

And look through nature up to natures God.

2. By a metonymy of the effect for the cause, nature is used for the agent, creator, author, producer of things, or for the powers that produce them. By the expression, trees and fossils are produced by nature, we mean, they are formed or produced by certain inherent powers in matter, or we mean that they are produced by God, the Creator, the Author of whatever is made or produced. The opinion that things are produced by inherent powers of matter, independent of a supreme intelligent author, is atheism. But generally men mean by nature, thus used, the Author of created things, or the operation of his power.

3. The essence, essential qualities or attributes of a thing, which constitute it what it is; as the nature of the soul; the nature of blood; the nature of a fluid; the nature of plants, or of a metal; the nature of a circle or an angle. When we speak of the nature of man, we understand the peculiar constitution of his body or mind, or the qualities of the species which distinguish him from other animals. When we speak of the nature of a man, or an individual of the race, we mean his particular qualities or constitution; either the peculiar temperament of his body, or the affections of his mind, his natural appetites, passions, disposition or temper. So of irrational animals.

4. The established or regular course of things; as when we say, an event is not according to nature, or it is out of the order of nature.

5. A law or principle of action or motion in a natural body. A stone by nature falls, or inclines to fall.

6. Constitution aggregate powers of a body, especially a living one. We say, nature is strong or weak; nature is almost exhausted.

7. The constitution and appearances of things.

The works, whether of poets, painters, moralists or historians, which are built upon general nature, live forever.

8. Natural affection or reverence.

Have we not seen, the murdering son ascend his parents bed through violated nature force his way?

9. System of created things.

He binding nature fast in fate, Left conscience free and will.

10. Sort; species; kind; particular character.

A dispute of this nature caused mischief to a king and an archbishop.

11. Sentiments r images conformed to nature, or to truth and reality.

Only nature can please those tastes which are unprejudiced and refined.

12. Birth. No man is noble by nature.

NATURE, v.t. To endow with natural qualities. [Not in use]

nat'-u-ral, na'-tur (leach; psuchikos, phusikos, phusis) :

1. As Used in the Old Testament:

"Natural" is the translation of leach, "freshness or vigor" (De 34:7). Of Moses it is said, "His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated."

"Nature" in the sense of a system or constitution does not occur in the Old Testament. The world and men, each individual, were conceived as being the direct creation of a supra-mundane God, and conserved by His power and Spirit. The later conception of "nature" came in through Greek influences.

In the Apocrypha, we find "nature" in the sense of innate character or constitution (The Wisdom of Solomon 7:20, "the natures (phuseis) of living creatures"; The Wisdom of Solomon 13:1, "Surely vain are all men by nature" (phusei), 3 Macc 3:29, "mortal nature" (phusis)).

2. As Used in the New Testament:

In the New Testament "nature" (phusis) is frequently found in the latter sense (Ro 1:26, "against nature"; Ro 2:14, "by nature"; Ro 2:27; 11:24, also "contrary to nature"; 1Co 11:14, "Doth not even nature itself teach you?"; Ga 2:15; 4:8; Eph 2:3; in 2Pe 1:4, we have "that ye might be partakers of the divine nature," the Revised Version margin "or, a") ; phusis occurs also in Jas 3:7, "every kind of beasts," the Revised Version margin "Greek: nature," also "mankind" (3:7), the Revised Version margin "Greek: the human nature." "Natural" (Ro 11:21,24) is the translation of kata phusin, "according to nature." Paul in 1 Corinthians speaks of "the natural man" (2:14, the American Revised Version margin "or unspiritual, Greek: physical") and of a "natural body" (1Co 15:44 twice), the Greek word being psuchikos, "of the soul" (psuche), the animal, natural, principle, as contrasted with what pertains to the higher principle of the spirit (pneuma). In 1Co 15:46 the contrast is expressed, "Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural," the American Revised Version margin "Greek: physical." The "natural man" is the man in whom the spirit is unquickened, the "natural body" is that corresponding to the psychical or soul-nature, the "spiritual body" that corresponding to the Spirit as the dominant principle of the life. In Jude 1:10, we have phusikos, "naturally" "naturally, as brute beasts," the Revised Version (British and American) "naturally, like the creatures without reason"; genesis, "origin," "birth," is translated "natural" (Jas 1:23, "his natural face," the Revised Version margin "Greek: the face of his birth"); and "nature" (Jas 3:6, "the course of nature" the Revised Version (British and American) "the wheel of nature" margin "or birth") ("wheel" probably means "circle of nature" (the whole creation; see COURSE)); gnesios, "genuine" ("true to right nature") "legitimate," "sincere," is translated "naturally" (Php 2:20, "who will naturally care for your state," the Revised Version (British and American) "truly," margin "Greek: genuinely").

W. L. Walker

See NATURAL, NATURE.