NATURAL Note, in Music, is used in opposition to flat and sharp notes, which are called artificial notes. See NOTE, SCALE, &c.
NATURAL is also used for something coming immediately out of the hands of nature: in which sense it stands opposed to facitious or artificial, which signifies something wrought by art. See ARTIFICIAL.
Bishop Wilkins observes, that there appears a world of difference between natural and artificial things, when viewed with microscopes. The first ever appear adorned with all imaginable elegance and beauty; the latter, though the most curious in their kind, infinitely rude and unhewn: the finest needle appears a rough bar of iron; and the most accurate engraving or embossment, as if done with a mattock or a trowel.