> as lemmas

1579 T. Twyne tr. Petrach Phisicke against Fortune 108 Keepyng as it were a middle course betweene ambition and modestie, he was content to be a Lorde, but not to be called so.

1618 J. Hales Let. 3 Dec. in Golden Remains (1659) ii. 18 Some thought absolutely it might be permitted them: others on the contrary thought no: some took a middle course, thinking they might preach privately before a select Auditory.

1724 J. Henley et al. tr. Pliny the Younger Epist. & Panegyrick I. i. vii. 14 I will therefore steer a middle Course, and of the two things..I will chuse that, which may not only content your present Inclination, but your Judgment likewise.

1846 ‘G. Eliot’ tr. D. F. Strauss Life Jesus I. 46 Those theologians..who think to unite both parties by this middle course—a vain endeavour which the rigid supranaturalist pronounces heretical, and the rationalist derides.

1871 Athenæum 15 July 87 A middle course between the conventionalism of the Italo-Byzantine and the naturalism or classicism of the rising schools.

1991 Dance Res. 9 4 For a courtier to appear graceful to his peers, all his actions had to seem second nature; that is he had to steer a middle course between sloppiness and wooden concentration.