To endow a thing, an animal, or an abstract idea with actions, feelings, or speech characteristic of a person.
In The Red and the Black
His pride would leave nothing to chance, not even to the inspiration of the moment. Based on Fouqué's confidences and on the little he had read about love in his Bible, he drew up a fairly detailed plan of campaign.
The narrator gives the feeling a will of its own: "His pride would leave nothing to chance", as if pride were someone who decides, and shows that Julien plans love so as not to risk failing.