natural virtue

American  

noun

1. (especially among the scholastics) any moral virtue of which humankind is capable, especially the cardinal virtues: justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude.

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Example Sentences

Instead of following the rigid training and rituals required by Confucius, they sought to liberate the natural virtue within.

From New York Times • Dec. 15, 2014

Man is naturally in tune with the divine in nature until he lets himself be corrupted away from his original innocence and natural virtue by organized society.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is the same case, if justice, according to the system of certain philosophers, should be esteemed an artificial and not a natural virtue.

From A Treatise of Human Nature by Hume, David

In those days men had behaved themselves: natural virtue had expressed itself in the natural way.

From The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Morris, Kenneth

That sturdy and natural virtue was embodied in Benjamin Franklin,—in all this eighteenth century the best type and herald of the coming development of man.

From The Chief End of Man by Merriam, George Spring