Yet because de Quincey was an opium-fiend, Poe a drunkard and Oscar Wilde a pervert, it does not follow that every clever writer is unfit for decent society.
"The Orchard of Tears"
Sax Rohmer
How my heart sickens at the thought that human ambitions and human vanities should so pervert man's highest mission-peace-turning the world into scenes of strife and bloodshed!
"The White Squaw"
Mayne Reid
Could they, with the wretched selfish jealousy of a modern marriage-maker, seek to cadaverate affection and to pervert each other into a utensil, a commodity, a thing appropriate to self and liable with other lumber to be cast aside?
"Anna St. Ives"
Thomas Holcroft