Literary notes about effectual (AI summary)
Throughout literary works, the term "effectual" is employed to denote something that is powerfully efficient or capable of producing a desired result. In many texts, it is used to describe remedies and medicinal concoctions that are believed to have a definitive impact on health, such as in references to herbal cures [1, 2, 3, 4]. The adjective is also extended to strategies and measures in political or military contexts, where actions or defenses are deemed potent enough to secure safety or win battles [5, 6, 7]. Beyond the physical, "effectual" appears in more abstract or moral spheres, describing prayers, philosophical exhortations, and persuasive rhetoric that are thought to secure conversion or achieve positive transformation [8, 9, 10]. This versatile usage highlights a recurrent literary emphasis on the reliability and practical potency underlying various actions and interventions [11, 12].
- The juice of Liquorice is as effectual in all the diseases of the breast and lungs, the reins and bladder, as the decoction.
— from The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper - The Bastard Rhubarb hath all the properties of the Monk’s Rhubarb, but more effectual for both inward and outward diseases.
— from The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper - The wild Angelica is not so effectual as the garden; although it may be safely used to all the purposes aforesaid.
— from The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper - It is singularly effectual in all fresh and green wounds, and therefore bears not this name for nought.
— from The Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper - To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
— from State of the Union Addresses by George Washington - Doubtless, as skirmishers lancers would not be more effectual than hussars, but when charging in line it is a very different affair.
— from The Art of War by baron de Antoine Henri Jomini - In the prosecution of the war, their policy was not less effectual than their sword.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
— from Biblical Extracts; Or, The Holy Scriptures Analyzed; Showing Its Contradictions, Absurdities, and Immoralities by Cooper, Robert, secularist - 15,) God justly withdrew those lights and graces, which otherwise he would have given them, for their effectual conversion.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
— from The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer by Andrew Murray - I am aware that help, to be effectual in these cases, should be thorough.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - This was understood at Christ's, and was an effectual screen to him against the severity of masters, or worse tyranny of the monitors.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
