How does the fowler seek to catch his game By divers means! all which one cannot name: His guns, his nets, his lime-twigs, light, and bell: He creeps, he goes, he stands; yea, who can tell Of all his postures?
No, he rather stoops, And seeks to find out what by pins and loops, By calves and sheep, by heifers and by rams, By birds and herbs, and by the blood of lambs, God speaketh to him; and happy is he That finds the light and grace that in them be.
3. I find that holy writ in many places Hath semblance with this method, where the cases Do call for one thing, to set forth another; Use it I may, then, and yet nothing smother Truth's golden beams: nay, by this method may Make it cast forth its rays as light as day.
The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already — it had not been light all day — and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air.
It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.
"That is no light part of my penance," pursued the Ghost. "I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer."
For, in that long past half-forgotten time, / While yet the world was young, and the sweet clime, / Golden and mild, no bitter storm-clouds bred, / Light lay the years upon the untroubled head, / And longer men lived then by many a year / Than in these days, when every week is dear.
1907, Jack London, “Negore, the Coward”, in Love of Life and Other Stories, New York: Macmillan, page 245:
He had followed the trail of his fleeing people for eleven days, and his pursuit had been in itself a flight; for behind him he knew full well were the dreaded Russians, toiling through the swampy lowlands and over the steep divides, bent on no less than the extermination of all his people. He was travelling light. A rabbit-skin sleeping-robe, a muzzle-loading rifle, and a few pounds of sun-dried salmon constituted his outfit. He would have marvelled that a whole people—women and children and aged—could travel so swiftly, had he not known the terror that drove them on.
[1944], If your baby must travel in wartime (Children in Wartime; 6), Bureau Publication 307, Washington: United States Department of Labor, Children's Bureau, pages 5–6:
Travel light, so far as your own personal belongings are concerned, lighter than you've ever imagined you could. ¶ Your aim is to take on the train enough for essential comfort and not one item more.
Ob[eron]. Through the house giue glimmering light, / By the dead and drowsie fier, / Euery Elfe and Fairy spright, / Hop as light as bird from brier, / And this Ditty after me, Sing and dance it trippingly.
1641, The Stage-Players Complaint, London: Tho. Bates, page 4; republished as Charles Hindley, editor, The Old Book Collector's Miscellany: or, a Collection of Readable Reprints of Literary Rarities, Illustrative of the History, Literature, Manners and Biography of the English Nation During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, volume 3, London: Reeves & Turner, 1873:
Light. Oh the times, when my heels have capered over the stage as light as a Finches Feather.
"With easy effort; without requiring or exerting much power"[edit]
1907, Classification of Locomotive-Miles, Car-Miles, and Train-Miles as Prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission in Accordance with Section 20 of the Act to Regulate Commerce, Washington: Government Printing Office, page 14:
Light locomotive-miles should be based on the actual distance locomotives run light, or with only a caboose, for the entire distance between terminals.
(The first occurrence of light in this passage is adjectival usage.)