“...Gradation; gradation; and then a sudden leap...”

“Everything suddenly seems displaced, subtle gradations erase borders, but it’s more forceful than that.”

“Aren't there gradations of evil? Is evil a great perilous gulf into which one falls with the first sin, plummeting to the depth?”

“It is to be hoped, indeed, that LANGUAGE, here as elsewhere, will not get over its awkwardness, and that it will continue to talk of opposites where there are only degrees and many refinements of gradation”

“He had forgotten how convincing the world could look, how sure of itself: its outlines and edges; it's gradations, recessions, protrusions; it's startling and vulgar colors.”

“I have stated, that in the thirteen species of ground-finches, a nearly perfect gradation may be traced, from a beak extraordinarily thick, to one so fine, that it may be compared to that of a warbler.”