The young contributor may test his work before the editor assays it, if he will, and he may know by a rule that is pretty infallible whether it is good or not, from his own experience in doing it.
"The Editor's Relations With The Young Contributor From "Literature and Life""
William Dean Howells
But after repeated assays with fire and chemical preparations on all the different sorts of stone to be picked up, it is still a desideratum.
"A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson"
Watkin Tench
After gentlest assays to know what was possible, the result might be that he grew courteously playful, or drew back, and confined himself to the formal.
"What's Mine's Mine V1"
George MacDonald