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7. Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.
8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that
which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; — said or
certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc.,
those taken in arcs whose radii are 1.
10. (Mus.) (a) Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental
music. (b) Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of
C major. (c) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions,
digressing but little from the original key. Moore
Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours. Chaucer.
— Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See under Fat, Gas. etc. — Natural Harmony (Mus.), the
harmony of the triad or common chord. — Natural history, in its broadest sense, a history or description
of nature as a whole, incuding the sciences of botany, zoölogy, geology, mineralogy, paleontology,
chemistry, and physics. In recent usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of botany and zoölogy
collectively, and sometimes to the science of zoology alone. — Natural law, that instinctive sense of
justice and of right and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished from specifically revealed
divine law, and formulated human law. — Natural modulation (Mus.), transition from one key to its
relative keys. — Natural order. (Nat. Hist.) See under order. — Natural person. (Law) See under
person, n. — Natural philosophy, originally, the study of nature in general; in modern usage, that
branch of physical science, commonly called physics, which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter
and considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; — contrasted
with mental and moral philosophy. — Natural scale (Mus.), a scale which is written without flats
or sharps. Model would be a preferable term, as less likely to mislead, the so-called artificial scales
(scales represented by the use of flats and sharps) being equally natural with the so-called natural
scale — Natural science, natural history, in its broadest sense; — used especially in contradistinction
to mental or moral science. — Natural selection (Biol.), a supposed operation of natural laws analogous,
in its operation and results, to designed selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in the
survival of the fittest. The theory of natural selection supposes that this has been brought about mainly
by gradual changes of environment which have led to corresponding changes of structure, and that those
forms which have become so modified as to be best adapted to the changed environment have tended
to survive and leave similarly adapted descendants, while those less perfectly adapted have tended
to die out though lack of fitness for the environment, thus resulting in the survival of the fittest. See
Darwinism. — Natural system (Bot. & Zoöl.), a classification based upon real affinities, as shown in
the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology.
It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its
genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand divisions. Gray. — Natural theology, or Natural religion, that part of theological science which treats of those evidences
of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are exhibited in nature; — distinguished from
revealed religion. See Quotation under Natural, a., 3. — Natural vowel, the vowel sound heard in
urn, furl, sir, her, etc.; — so called as being uttered in the easiest open position of the mouth organs.
See Neutral vowel, under Neutral and Guide to Pronunciation, § 17.
Syn. — See Native.
Natural
(Nat"u*ral) n.
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