For he had studied under instructors who had taught him to cling rather to the teachings of the old faith than to the ingenious explanations of the commentators, and who had exposed to the light alone what is serviceable to man, as to a plant, and to its outward growth, but not the roots perniciously.
"The Campaner Thal and Other Writings"
Jean Paul Friedrich Richter
As a child, between a flighty mother and a father verging to insanity from caprice, he had grown up with ideas of filial duty perplexed, and with a fitful love for either, that was not attachment: a baffled natural love, that in teaching us to brood on the hardness of our lot, lays the foundation for a perniciously mystical self-love.
"The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith"
George Meredith
Dr. Eberle says, "Opiates never fail to operate perniciously on the whole organization."
"The American Reformed Cattle Doctor"
George Dadd