Literary notes about Incorporeal (AI summary)
In literature, "incorporeal" is often deployed to evoke ideas that transcend the physical, suggesting a quality or presence that exists apart from tangible matter. Authors use the term to highlight abstract forces—such as an incorporeal law that governs life [1] or time defined as a nonmaterial interval of cosmic motion [2]—and to underscore the immaterial essence of divine or soulful entities [3, 4]. At times, the word enriches narrative atmosphere by describing spectral influences, such as a ghostly voice initiating dramatic change [5]. In each usage, "incorporeal" serves as a powerful metaphor for that which is elusive, transcendent, and ultimately beyond direct perception.
- That is now added; and so the argument is complete, and may be compared to an incorporeal law, which is to hold fair rule over a living body.
— from Philebus by Plato - Moreover, that time is incorporeal, since it is an interval of the motion of the world.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius - Infinite personality must be incorporeal.
— from Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 by Mary Baker Eddy - And the soul of man is unlike that incorporeal and unchangeable and eternal essence, in proportion as it craves things temporal and mutable.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - And a shower of flowers fell on Sahadeva’s head, and an incorporeal voice said—‘Excellent, excellent.’
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1
