“ I will tell you it is my neck you are putting in peril; for whatever is yours is, in a dearer and tenderer sense, mine.’ There he was: I saw him; ”
Peril
Definition and stakes
Peril, involving danger, risk, and jeopardy, has long been a central theme in literature, reflecting both physical and moral hazards. From Charlotte Brontë’s depiction of personal sacrifice in Villette to Charles Dickens’ reflective examination of dangers associated with travel in The Wreck of the Golden Mary, authors have wrestled with its complex nature.
Legal and philosophical aspects arise in Nathan Clifford’s judicial analysis of hazardous undertakings and the Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine’s contemplation of existential threats. Meanwhile, works such as H. W. Long’s Sane Sex Life and Roxey Ann Caplin’s Health and Beauty consider peril through bodily and social perspectives, demonstrating its lasting significance across genres and contexts.
Quotes about “peril”
Nathan Clifford, Hobson v. Lord — Opinion of the Court
“ Where there is no peril, such a sacrifice presents no claim for such a contribution; but, the greater and more imminent the peril, the more meritorious the claim against the other interests, if the sacrifice was voluntary, and contributed to save the adventure from the impending danger to which all the interests were exposed. ”
Various, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine…
“ The "perils that flesh is heir to," are nothing if compared to the perils that environ the similitudes of flesh. "Nos nostraque morti debemur." Men and pictures suffer from the doctors as well as from time. ”
Charles Dickens,
The Wreck of the Golden Mary
(1900)
“ Notwithstanding my being, as I have mentioned, quite ready for a voyage, still I had some doubts of this voyage. Of course I knew, without being told, that there were peculiar difficulties and dangers in it, a long way over and above those which attend all voyages. It must not be supposed that I was afraid to face them; but in my opinion a man has no manly motive or sustainment in his own breast for facing dangers, unless he has well considered what they are, and is able quietly to say to himself, "None of these perils can now take me by surprise ”
Kate Percival, The Life and Amours of the Beautiful…
“ Oh! I must—I must!' And she put her finger between the lips of my sheath and titillated my vagina. 'How charming, how delicious,' she repeated. 'Amy, I am in a blaze—my slit is on fire. How deliciously tight your vagina clasps my finger and what a delightful warmth is there. There! Now I have your clitoris! How stiff it is!'"'Dearest Florence,' I exclaimed, wiggling my buttocks, for the in-and-out motion of her finger was more than I could bear—'your touchings and titillations are bringing on a crisis. Stay the motion of your finger or I shall come—there—there—there it is! Oh! I die! ”
Roxey Ann Caplin, Health and beauty — Chapter VII (1864)
“ A minute study of the human frame shows us that the form of the female differs from that of the male on purpose that it may be adapted to the necessities of this interesting period. The breadth of the pelvis, the structure of the tissues, and a number of other phenomena, are all modified in her for the purpose of giving life and health to her progeny. ”
H. W. Long, Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living
“ Now, in this position, the sex organs are brought closely together and their union is easily accomplished. But see! It is now the woman, and not the man who has full control of such meeting, and so can regulate it to her liking, or needs. Her hips are perfectly free to move towards, or from, those of the man; and so she can determine just how much or how little of his penis shall enter her vagina! And if his penis is too long for her, she can accommodate her action to such fact! ”
Roxey Ann Caplin, Health and beauty by Caplin (1856)
“ Again, when in a recumbent posture on the back, the breast of the man will be the highest part, but the pubes in the woman. The female loins are also the broadest, and the hollow of her back the greatest, in order that the due inclination may be given to the pelvis. ”
Albert Moll, The Sexual Life of the Child
“ If the period of the puberal development be understood to correspond to the development and ripening of the sexual life, we see that this development begins much earlier than is commonly assumed in books on the subject. Writers have been too ready to identify with this developmental period the appearance of certain external manifestations, more especially the growth of the pubic hair in both sexes, the development of the breasts in the female, and the breaking of the voice in the male ”
John Cleland, Memoirs of Fanny Hill
“ Her thighs were spread out to their utmost extention, and discovered between them the mark of the sex, the red-centered cleft of flesh, whose lips vermillioning inwards, expressed a small ruby line in sweet miniature, such as Guide’s touch or colouring: could never attain to the life or delicacy of. ”
M. le Clerc, The Compleat Surgeon
“ The Penis or Yard is a Nervous and Membranous Part, well furnish'd with Veins and Arteries, containing in the middle the Canal of the Ureter: Its Extremity, which consists of a very delicate and spongy sort of Flesh, is call'd Balanus, or Glans, and the Nut, the Skin that covers it being nam'd the Præputium, or the Fore-Skin. Thus by the means of this swell'd Part, and stiff thro' the affluence of the Spirits, the Male injects his Seed into the Matrix of the Female, to propagate his Kind.What are the Parts appropriated to Generation in Women? ”
Harland William Long, Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living (1919)
“ Under such conditions, the penis is inserted into the widened and distended vaginal passage. Once together, a mutual back and forth, or partly in and out movement, of the organs is begun and carried on by the man and woman, which action further enlarges the parts and raises them to a still higher degree of tension and excitement. ”
George M. Gould,
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
“ The females of this nation manipulated the skin of the lower part of the abdomens of the female children from infancy, and at puberty these women exhibit a cutaneous curtain over the genitals which reaches half-way down the thighs. ”
Otto Weininger,
Sex & Character
(1906)
“ And yet the character of the pelvis cannot be taken as an absolute criterion of sex. There are to be found, and the wayfarer knows this as well as the anatomist, many women with narrow male-like pelves and many men with the broad pelves of women. ”
Manual of Classical Erotology…
“ For my own part I like the usual custom and the ordinary method best: the man should lie upon the woman, who is on her back, breast to breast, stomach to stomach, pubis to pubis, piercing her tender cleft with his rigid spear. Indeed what can be imagined sweeter than for the woman to lie extended on her back, bearing the welcome weight of her lovers’ body, and exciting him to the tender transports of a restless but delicious voluptuousness? What more pleasant than to feast on her lovers’ face, his kisses, his sighs, and the fire of his wanton eyes? ”
Kate Percival, The Life and Amours of the Beautiful…
“ Look in the mirror and see how deliciously your penis fills my vagina. Stay, let me raise my thighs a little, you will see it better then. There, now you see it. How lusciously it enters in and out of the coral cavity—now—I can see its ruby head—now it is lost in the hair covering my mount," (his strokes quickened) "Oh! Oh! I can stand no more," she continued, wiggling her buttocks. ”
William John Fielding, Sex and the Love-Life (1927)
“ Characteristically, in the boy, we observe the sprouting of the beard and pubic hair, a more rapid enlargement of the testicles and reproductive organs, and an acceleration in the growth of the body generally. ”
B. G. Jefferis, Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics
“ A Careful Study of this organ, of its location, of its arteries and nerves, will convince the growing girl that her body should never submit to corsets and tight lacing in response to the demands of fashion, even though nature has so bountifully provided for the safety of this important organ. By constant pressure the vagina and womb may be compressed into one-third their natural length or crowded into an unnatural position. We can readily see, then, the effect of lacing or tight clothing. ”
Frederick Gymer Parsons, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica (1911)
“ As appendages of the skin are found the hairs, the nails and the sebaceous and sweat glands. Hair.—The hairs are found in man on the scalp, eyelids, eyebrows, armpits, pubic region, vestibule of the nose, external auditory meatus, face, ventral surface of the trunk and dorsal surfaces of the leg, forearm and hand; indeed the only places which are quite free from them are the palms of the hands, soles of the feet and the glans penis. In some places, such as the armpits, pubic region and the face of the male they grow to a considerable length at and after puberty. ”
Anonymous, The Amorous Intrigues and Adventures of Aaron Burr (1861)
“ The smooth, round belly, the voluminous yet compact thighs, the robust calf, and small foot and ankle, the satin smoothness of the skin, and other graces not to be mentioned, but whose pouting and moist freshness betokened a guarded virginity, which, however, longed for the pressure of manhood, all these so fired him with passion, that he had scarcely the necessary patience to prepare himself for the amorous encounter. ”
Vātsyāyana,
Kama Sutra
(1883)
“ When a woman in a lonely place bends down, as if to pick up something, and pierces, as it were, a man sitting or standing, with her breasts, and the man in return takes hold of them, it is called a 'piercing embrace'. ”
Harland William Long, Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living (1919)
“ Or, as a variation from this, if the organs can be united to their fullest possible limit, so that the base of the penis presses firmly against the Mons Veneris, and the clitoris and labiae almost clasp their mate; and then, in this position, if the husband will maintain the status quo, while she lifts her hips hard against his, and swings them about, in a sort of circular motion "round and round," as it were—this will also greatly increase her passion, and soon bring her to the climax. ”
Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom,
Obstetrical Nursing
“ The normal female pelvis, on the other hand, is light, broad, shallow, smooth and large, giving evidence of the infinite wisdom and skill that entered into constructing it for the high purpose it was designed to serve. ”
Earl Lind,
Autobiography of an Androgyne
(1918)
“ Pelvis is broad and limbs loosely hung, as in a woman, and fingers and hands rather feminine in their general fineness of texture, comparative absence of hair, absence of prominent bones and veins, and the softness and pleasing tint of skin. Features are small like a woman's, but nose, lips, and ears large in proportion, indicating sensuality. I possess mammary glands and sacral dimples. While my breasts are as large as in some women, the nipples are small, even for a man. I am small-boned, of delicate build, and my muscular system is soft. ”
H. W. Long, Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living
“ Male sex organs are penis and testicles—Size and form of penis when at rest and during sexual excitement—Position of testicles—Why one teste is larger—Pubic regions in men and women. Female sex organs are vulva, vaginal passage, womb, and ovaries—Length of vaginal passage compared with distended penis—Size and formation of womb—Position of ovaries. ”
E. Heinrich Kisch,
The sexual life of woman in its physiological…
“ The anatomical changes which occur in the female genital organs during these different phases of sexual life give rise to a number of manifold local stimuli, increasing and decreasing, varying greatly in intensity and area of distribution, upon which depend the reflex effects and remote manifestations in the sphere of the nervous and circulatory systems. ”
Marie Stopes,
Married Love — Chapter 5: Mutual Adjustment
(1918)
“ What actually happens in an act of union should be known. After the preliminaries of love-play, the stimulated penis, erect, enlarged and stiffened, is pressed into the woman's vagina. Ordinarily when a woman is not stimulated, the walls of this canal, as well as the exterior lips of soft tissue surrounding its exit, are dry and rather crinkled, and the vaginal opening is smaller than the man's extended organ. ”
B. G. Jefferis, Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics
“ The reproductive organs in man are the penis and testicles and their appendages.2. The penis deposits the seminal life germ of the male. It is designed to fulfill the seed planting mission of human life. ”
Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton, The Zoologist (1901)
“ Inasmuch as they follow the growth of the genital organs, where this growth is periodical so are they periodical, and, where the genital organs are influential throughout life, the characters are permanent, waxing and waning, however, like the Stag's horns, with their progress from youth through maturity to senescence. ”
Kate Percival, The Life and Amours of the Beautiful…
“ The contact of the warm flesh almost drove us mad—we squirmed and wiggled in each other's arms—we hugged, kissed and bit each other—we rolled on the floor, interlacing our thighs, his staff touched my con, the hair of our genitals intermingled—we rubbed our bubbies together. I rolled myself on the top of him and moved myself backwards and forwards-he placed a hand on each cheek of my bottom, and pressed my hairy slit to his testicles. ”
Steven David Justin Sills, American Papyrus: 25 Poems
“ Fuck so hard that the penis would Knive through the condom And spray-paint the man's name On the dull walls of the vagina. They had that freedom--those inalienable rights-- Her to be banged and to squeal To her friends that she was in love And him to white pussy And a gal that he could call his own... ”
Giles Jacob, Tractus de Hermaphrodites; Or, A Treatise of Hermaphrodites
“ The Clitoris in Women suffers erection and falling in the same manner as the Penis in Men; and the Vagina likewise swells to make the Passage streight and easy, for the reception of the Penis in the Time of Enjoyment. ”
Kate Percival, The Life and Amours of the Beautiful…
“ We threw ourselves on the bed and assumed a hundred different positions. At last I caused her to kneel before me, and handled at will her belly, her thighs, her bubbies, and at last, though not the least delicious, her con, pressing the two lips together, playing with the hair on her mount, titillating her clitoris and exploring the innermost recesses of her vagina. ”
Aegineta Paulus, The seven books of Paulus Ægineta… (1844)
“ The same thing is to be done when two hands fall down into the vagina; and in like manner, when the feet come down, and the rest of the body does not come along, we must amputate at the groins, and then endeavour to turn the rest of the body. ”
Alice B. Stockham,
Tokology
(1883)
“ The vagina serves as a passage for the menstrual fluid, for the fetus at birth, and for the reception of the male organ in copulation, and in a state of health assists the perineal muscles in sustaining the uterus. ”
Mary Ware Dennett,
The Sex Side of Life: An Explanation for Young People
“ The man's special sex organ or penis, becomes enlarged and stiffened, instead of soft and limp as ordinarily, and thus it easily enters the passage in the woman's body called the vagina or birth-canal, which leads to the uterus or womb, which as perhaps you already know is the sac in which the [Pg 9] egg or embryo grows into a baby. ”
H. G. Wells,
Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
“ There is no penis in the male, fertilisation of the ova occurring as they are squeezed out of the female by the embracing fore limbs of the male. The male has a pad, black in winter, shown in Figure 1, which is closely pressed against the ventral surface of the female in copulation, and which serves as a ready means of distinguishing the sex. ”
Isabella L. Bird,
Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan…
“ They howl and wail, beating their breasts rhythmically, keeping time with their feet, tearing their hair and gashing their faces with sharp flints, cutting off also their long locks and trampling upon them with piteous cries. ”
Roxey Ann Caplin, Health and beauty — Chapter IV (1864)
“ The father walks on with long and rapid strides, holding the child by the hand, and as he does not consider that his step is much longer than that of his offspring, he tells the child to "step out like papa." The boy endeavours to obey, and the result is that the pelvis becomes ricketty and deformed. ”
Albert Moll, The Sexual Life of the Child
“ I must now give some account of the peripheral processes occurring in the female genital organs in connexion with the sexual act. In part, they are completely analogous to those which take place in the male. I have already pointed out that in many respects the clitoris in the female corresponds to the penis in the male, In the clitoris, also, erection occurs, conditioned partly by psychical and partly by physical stimuli. ”
P. C. Remondino, History of circumcision from the earliest times to the present (1891)
“ She has a man’s head in every particular of physiognomy and expression, having in the latter figure a full beard and the peculiar intellectual development of a male sage; she has the hairy breast of the man, with the mammary development of the female, and an abnormally-enlarged clitoris, which was often mistaken for the male organ. ”
Marie Nyswander Robinson, The Power of Sexual Surrender
“ It may have surprised you to learn of the relatively short length of the vagina. The tissue of its walls are extremely elastic, however, and not only can it contain a penis of virtually any thickness or length, but it can stretch enough to allow the newborn infant to pass through it. The penis presses against the cervical end of the uterus, which may be forced upward until the penis gains full entrance. Contact with the soft tissue of the cervix is a source of great pleasure for the male, and the pressure can be an equal pleasure for the woman. ”
