Those words that have revealed to me a glimpse of a soul braver, nobler, more self-Immolating than I ever believed could live in the form of mortal man, not to say in that of a fragile girl," said the young man, fervently, earnestly.
"Her Mother's Secret"
Emma D. E. N. Southworth
I was prevented by my unfortunate condition from Immolating the victim on the altar of love, so we confined ourselves to a make-believe combat which only lasted a minute; however, our eyes took in it, and our excited feelings were by no means appeased.
"The Memoires of Casanova, Complete The Rare Unabridged London Edition Of 1894, plus An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Symons"
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
Perhaps the moral compensation for all a woman's petty cleverness under thriving conditions is the real nobility that lies in her extreme foolishness at these other times; her sheer inability to be simply just, her exercise of an illogical power entirely denied to men in general-the power not only of kissing, but of delighting to kiss the rod by a punctilious observance of the self-Immolating doctrines in the Sermon on the Mount.
"Desperate Remedies"
Thomas Hardy