Chapter Stovehouse to Strain of S by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

or conduct; as, he spoke in a noble strain; there was a strain of woe in his story; a strain of trickery appears in his career. "A strain of gallantry." Sir W. Scott.

Such take too high a strain at first.

Bacon.

The genius and strain of the book of Proverbs.

Tillotson.

It [Pilgrim's Progress] seems a novelty, and yet contains
Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains.

Bunyan.

4. Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.

Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements.

Hayward.