Vocabulary Word
Word: corporeal
Definition: bodily (rather than spiritual); of a bodily form; material; tangible
Definition: bodily (rather than spiritual); of a bodily form; material; tangible
Sentences Containing 'corporeal'
As modifications of corporeal structure arise from, and are increased by, use or habit, and are diminished or lost by disuse, so I do not doubt it has been with instincts.
Hence, as in the case of corporeal structures, we ought to find in nature, not the actual transitional gradations by which each complex instinct has been acquired--for these could be found only in the lineal ancestors of each species--but we ought to find in the collateral lines of descent some evidence of such gradations; or we ought at least to be able to show that gradations of some kind are possible; and this we certainly can do.
On the other hand, the fact that instincts are not always absolutely perfect and are liable to mistakes; that no instinct can be shown to have been produced for the good of other animals, though animals take advantage of the instincts of others; that the canon in natural history, of "Natura non facit saltum," is applicable to instincts as well as to corporeal structure, and is plainly explicable on the foregoing views, but is otherwise inexplicable--all tend to corroborate the theory of natural selection.
And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.
There was a corporeal humility in looking up at him; and a white man standing before him seemed a white flag come to beg truce of a fortress.
He knew, for example, that however magnetic his ascendency in some respects was over Starbuck, yet that ascendency did not cover the complete spiritual man any more than mere corporeal superiority involves intellectual mastership; for to the purely spiritual, the intellectual but stand in a sort of corporeal relation.
How wonderful is it then--except after explanation--that this great monster, to whom corporeal warmth is as indispensable as it is to man; how wonderful that he should be found at home, immersed to his lips for life in those Arctic waters!
More Vocab Words
::: despoil - plunder; sack; Ex. despoil the village::: epithet - word or phrase characteristically used to describe a person or thing; descriptive phrase to characterize a person (often contemptous)
::: tribunal - court of justice
::: adage - wise saying; proverb
::: curtail - shorten; reduce
::: ravel - fall apart into tangles; entangle; unravel or untwist
::: fresco - painting on wet plaster (usually fresh)
::: proselytize - (induce someone to) convert to a religion or belief; N. proselyte: new convert to a doctrine or religion
::: bland - soothing or mild (food); agreeable; causing no trouble or offence
::: caption - title; chapter heading; text under illustration
