5 98 NAT 
preferving meat and making it tender, and laftly, to mix 
with fnuff and make it more pungent. Natron is alfo 
found in another lake, lefs conliderable than that called 
the Lake of Terane, which is in the defert of Nitria, or 
of St. Macarius, viz. near Damanhour, and in other coun¬ 
tries, befides Egypt. Sonnini's Travels in Egypt. 
2. Natrum acidulare : inodorous; diflolved in water. 
Found in the warm and acidulous baths of Seltzer and 
various parts of Germany, and in the lakes between 
Alexandria and Rofetta. 
3. Natrum murorum : inodorous, mixed with carbo¬ 
nate of lime. Found in old walls cemented by lime, 
efflorefcing like frolt, and is not totally foluble in water. 
/ 3 . N. marmoreum. Found in marble rocks. 
4. Natrum volatile, volatile alkali, or carbonat of am¬ 
moniac : fetid, mixed with earths and other falts. Found 
in various foils, in chalk, fwineltone, argil, and often in 
the natron of old walls; its odour originates in the am¬ 
monia of decayed living bodies. 
NATU'NA I'SLANDS, a duller of fmall illands in 
the Chinefe Sea: lixty miles weft from the coaftof Borneo. 
Lat. 4. N. Ion. 108. E. 
NATU'PA, a town on the weft coaft of the ifland of 
Panay. Lat. 11.30. N. Ion. 122. E. 
NAT'URAL, f. An idiot; one whom nature debars of 
underftanding ; a fool.—That a monfter Ihould be fuch a 
natural. S/iakefpeare. —Take the thoughts of one out of 
that narrow compafs he has been all his life confined to, 
you will find him no more capable of reafoning than a 
perfedt natural. Locke. —Native; original inhabitant. Not 
in u/e. —The inhabitants and naturals of the place Ihould 
be in a ftate of freemen. Abbot's Djc. of the World. —Op- 
preftion in many places wears the robes of jultice, which, 
domineering over the naturals , may not fpare Arrangers ; 
and Arrangers will not endure it. Raleigh's EJfays. —Gift of 
nature; nature; quality. Not in ufe. —The wretchederare 
the contemners of all helps ; fuch as, prefuming on their 
own naturals , deride diligence, and mock at terms when 
they underftand not things. J 3 . Jonfon. —To confider them 
in their pure naturals, the earl’s intellectual faculties were 
his ftronger part, and the duke, his practical. Wotton. 
NAT'URAL, adj. [ naturalis , Lat.] Produced or ef¬ 
fected by nature ; not artificial.—There is no natural mo¬ 
tion of any particular heavy body which is perpetual; yet 
it is poftible from them to contrive fuch an artificial revo¬ 
lution as lhall conllantly be the caufe of itlelf. Wilkins's 
Dedalus .— Illegitimate ; not legal. — This would turn the 
vein of that we call natural to that of legal propagation; 
which has ever been encouraged, as the other has been dis¬ 
favoured, by all inftitutions. Temple.— Bellowed by na¬ 
ture ; not acquired.—If there be any difference in natural 
parts, it Ihould leem that the advantage lies on the fide 
of children born from noble and wealthy parents. Swift. 
-—Not forced ; not far-fetched ; dictated by nature.—I 
will now deliver a few of the propereft and natural eft co’n- 
fiderations that belong to this piece. Wotton. —Following 
the Hated courfe of things.—If folid piety, humility, and 
r fbber fenle of themfelves, is much wanted in that lex, it 
is the plain and natural confequence of a vain and corrupt 
education. Law.—r Confonant to natural notions.—Such 
unnatural connections become, by cultom, ns natural to 
the mind as fun and light; fire and warmth go together, 
and fo feem to carry with them as natural -aw evidence as 
felf-evident truths themfelves. Locke .— Difcoverable by 
realon ; not revealed. — I call that natural religion, which 
men might know, and Ihould be obliged unto, by the meer 
principles of realon, improved by confideration and expe¬ 
rience, without the help of revelation. Wilkins. —Tender; 
aftedionate by nature: 
To leave his wife, to leave his babes, 
He wants the natural touch. Shakefpeare's Macbeth. 
UnaffeCted; according to truth and reality.—What can 
be more natural than the circumitances in the behaviour 
NAT 
of thofe women who had loft their hufbands on this fata! 
day ? Addifon. —Oppofed to violent; as, a natural death. 
Natural is now generally ufed, of children, to fignifjr 
illegitimate, or not born in wedlock. That this, how¬ 
ever, was not the ancient original meaning, is evident 
from a letter of Edward IV. when earl of March, and his 
brother the earl of Rutland, to their father Richard duke 
of York, printed in the xviith volume of the Archsso- 
logia. The letter begins thus : “ Right high and right 
mighty prince, our full redoubted and right noble lord 
and father, as lowly with all our hearts as we your true 
and natural fons can or may, we recommend us unto your 
noble grace.” It is evident, then, that the word natural 
did not,in the reign of Henry VI. iignify illegitimate ■, but 
the faCt is, that, when applied to children, it was ufed in 
oppofition to adopted ; and, when applied topkyjieal, it was 
in oppofition to civil, qualities. Thus, when a man had 
an eitate given hint to hold during his natural life, it was 
to fecure him the benefit of the gift after he might be 
dead in law by becoming a monk. And to this day, in 
the ecclefiaftical courts, which in many of their forms and 
doCtrines ftill adhere to the Juftinian Code, and the canon- 
law eftablifhed when the catholic religion prevailed in this 
country, the epithet natural is applied to lawful children : 
for in all probates of wills and letters of adminiftration 
granted to the children of a deceafed perfon, the form of 
the grant is, “ To A. B. the natural and lawful fon or 
daughter of the faid C. D.” It may be faid that the word 
lawful, in thefe inllruments, is employed to explain the 
word natural, which would otherwife be taken to fignify 
illegitimate: fo it may, and indeed it is moft probable 
that it was firft introduced into thefe forms at the period 
when, in common parlance, the word natural came ta 
fignify illegitimate For, that there was a time when the 
word natural, though Handing alone, did not mean ille¬ 
gitimate, is proved by king Edward’s letter. This infer¬ 
ence might, however, have admitted of fome doubt, if 
the word true in that letter had followed natural ; but, as 
it precedes it, it cannot be faid to be ufed in explanation 
of it. If it be faid that it is now many ages fince the im¬ 
perial code, which allowed of the adoption of children, 
was in ufe in this country, and that it is, therefore, no 
proof that the word natural can now be employed in op¬ 
pofition to the word adopted, we alk, what other fenle can 
be given to it in the grants of probates and adminiftra- 
tions ? and whether it does not often happen that, in the 
forms of legal inllruments, we retain modes of expreftion 
of which the origin is forgotten, and the utility is un¬ 
known ? In faCt, the word natural is retained to this day, 
not only in the inllruments above mentioned, but in all 
conveyances and fettlements of eftates; and a modern 
conveyancer would be thought a very bold innovator, 
who, in drawing a deed of this kind, Ihould not, in giving 
an eftate to a man during his life, exprefs it to be during 
his natural life. The only meaning the word can have, 
when fo ufed, is to diftinguilh the natural from the civil 
exiltence of the perfon ; a diftindtion, however, which has 
long fince become ufelelsand abfurd. 
Another proof that there was a time when the word 
natural did not imply illegitimacy is this, that even at this 
day it is the univerlal practice of lawyers to add a word 
of explanation when they mean to ufe the word natural in 
the fenfe of illegitimate. Thus, although an unprofef- 
lional perfon in making his will would fay, “ I give 
ioool. to my natural fon, A. B.” meaning his illegitimate 
fon; a lawyer drawing the will tor him would lay, “ [ 
give to my natural or reputed Ion, A. B.” This explana¬ 
tory phrafe is, therefore, a remnant of former times, when 
the word natural had begun to be taken in common par¬ 
lance for illegitimate, but which was not then eftablilhed 
as its Jegal fignification. It leems clear, therefore, that 
in the reign of Henry VI. the word natural, when Hand¬ 
ing alone, did not impiy illegitimate; but that there af¬ 
terwards came a period when, in its ufual acceptation, it 
