It scorches the mind like a blast of sulphur.
"The Adventure of Living"
John St. Loe Strachey
If it scorches black immediately, the heat is too furious; if it merely browns, it is right.
"The American Frugal Housewife"
Lydia M. Child
Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon meaner; it whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable acts of humanity; it is the universal hinge on which we move; it glides the gentle stream of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, and swells into a destructive flood; like the sun, in his milder rays, it animates and draws us towards perfection; but, like him, in his fiercer beams, it scorches and destroys.
"An History of Birmingham (1783)"
William Hutton