seminal principle

American  

noun

Philosophy.

1. a potential, latent within an imperfect object, for attaining full development.

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Example Sentences

The nation was saved and that seminal principle of mischief which from the birth of the Government had gradually but inevitably brought on the rebellion was totally eradicated.

From A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 6, part 2: Andrew Johnson by Richardson, James D. (James Daniel)

"Accordingly, whatever seemed the most subtle or pliable, as well as universal element in the mass of the visible world, was marked as the seminal principle whose successive developments and transformations produced all the rest."

From Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles by Cocker, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)

I have nothing to say to that virtue which shoots up in full force by the native vigor of the seminal principle, in spite of the adverse soil and climate that it grows in.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund

There are spirits in which it developes the seminal principle of life; there are others in which it prematurely hastens the consummation of irreparable decay.

From Sermons Preached at Brighton Third Series by Robertson, Frederick William

In the Commedia for the first time Christianity wholly revolutionizes Art, and becomes its seminal principle.

From Among My Books Second Series by Lowell, James Russell