natural virtues

British

plural noun

(esp among the scholastics) those virtues of which man is capable without direct help from God, specifically justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude Compare theological virtues

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Some Renaissance thinkers praised the Indians as innocent “noble savages” whose natural virtues mocked the vices of civilized Christians, though exaggerated accounts of Indian innocence were as unrealistic as contrasting reports of Indian savagery.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

I mean no natural virtue, because all the natural virtues existed and had been practiced by hundreds and thousands of millions before Christ was born.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 7 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Ingersoll, Robert Green

The bodies they assume have not the natural virtues which they show, nor the operations of life, but those which are common to inanimate things.

From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Disraeli, Isaac

In such antecedents and surroundings it is easy to see the source of that abiding confidence in human nature, and that love for the natural virtues which marked Father Hecker's whole career.

From Life of Father Hecker by Elliott, Walter

It gave her something like the natural virtues of mountain coolness and ocean air.

From Fate Knocks at the Door A Novel by Comfort, Will Levington

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023