Literary notes about Gradual (AI summary)
The term "gradual" in literature is employed to capture the essence of slow, incremental change—whether in ideas, natural processes, or social transformations. It characterizes a movement from one state to another, as seen when a mere sensation evolves into an image ([1]) or when a thinker’s core ideas are slowly formed ([2]). In historical narratives and scientific writings alike, it emphasizes both the steady erosion of once-stable entities, such as decaying cities ([3], [4]) and the incremental evolutionary shifts in nature ([5], [6]). Moreover, it lends a nuanced tone to personal and dramatic shifts in character or circumstance, highlighting processes like the descent from greatness ([7]) or the subtle separation between individuals ([8]).
- At the beginning of a stimulus we have a sensation; then a gradual transition; and at the end an image.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - p. 406) has given an instructive account of the gradual development in Kant’s mind of the main idea of the Critique of Judgement.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant - 26 The sack of Ctesiphon was followed by its desertion and gradual decay.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - As its influence was not confined to Rome or Italy, the produce continually increased with the gradual extension of the Roman City.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - But seals would not find on oceanic islands the conditions favourable to their gradual reconversion into a terrestrial form.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - That many species have been evolved in an extremely gradual manner, there can hardly be a doubt.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - if thou hast decreed to humble me, grant me at least a gentle and gradual descent from the pinnacle of greatness!
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Between the old man and herself there had come a gradual separation, harder to bear than any former sorrow.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
