He lay on a coral beach where the cocoanuts grew down to the mellow-sounding surf.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

Ostrich and other feathers are very frequently found on either side of a crest, both in British and Continental armory; but though often met with in this position, there is nothing peculiar about this use in such character.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

CHAPTER XVIII August 25th.—I am now quite settled down to my usual routine of steady occupations and quiet amusements—tolerably contented and cheerful, but still looking forward to spring with the hope of returning to town, not for its gaieties and dissipations, but for the chance of meeting Mr. Huntingdon once again; for still he is always in my thoughts and in my dreams.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

“While the Author cannot but feel the full force of the compliment thus conveyed to him, he ventures to suggest that these contentions may arise from the fact, that Mr. Squeers is the representative of a class, and not of an individual.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

But there are certain bootless crimes, or rather sins, that imply "sacratio", devotion to the gods, for the clearing of the community.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo

For either they have equall power to Excommunicate each other, in which case Excommunication is not Discipline, nor an act of Authority, but Schisme, and Dissolution of charity; or one is so subordinate to the other, as that they both have but one voice, and then they be but one Church; and the part Excommunicated, is no more a Church, but a dissolute number of individuall persons.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Then he answered: “Well, I shall beg for a fire, a turning lathe, and a carving bench with the knife attached.”
— from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

The spirit of the relation as contemplated by the law is that the superior completely controls the inferior, to be sure, but that a certain claim is assured to the latter, which claim he may press or may allow to lapse, so that even this most definite form of the relation still contains an element of spontaneity on the part of the inferior.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

CHAPTER XVII Nothing happened in the night; and (I am happy to add) no attempt at communication between Miss Rachel and Rosanna rewarded the vigilance of Sergeant Cuff.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Yet I will go, if alive and well; but I must go up on the Sunday, and come back on the Tuesday, for I cannot be longer absent.
— from William Cobbett: A Biography in Two Volumes, Vol. 2 by Edward Smith

These strips are also designated, by the same letters, and are connected by a return wire with the table of him who wishes to dictate the message.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 384, May 12, 1883 by Various

One piece of news I know will give you pleasure—Rickman is made a Clerk to the House of Commons, £2000 a year with greater expectat'us—but that is not the news—but it is that poor card-playing Phillips, that has felt himself for so many years the outcast of Fortune, which feeling pervaded his very intellect, till it made the destiny it feared, withering his hopes in the great and little games of life—by favor of the single star that ever shone upon him since his birth, has strangely stept into Rickman's Secretaryship—sword, bag, House and all—from a hopeless £100 a year eaten up beforehand with desperate debts, to a clear £400 or £500—it almost reconciles me to the belief of a moral government of the world—the man stares and gapes and seems to be always wondering at what has befaln him—he tries to be eager at Cribbage, but
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by Charles Lamb

“Aye, aye!” came back, and the horses shuffled and spread their legs.
— from The Peril Finders by George Manville Fenn

If Mr. Adams could be induced to administer the government on its true principles, quitting his bias for an English constitution, it would be worthy consideration whether it would not be for the public good, to come to a good understanding with him as to his future elections.
— from Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3 by Thomas Jefferson

[12] Printed 1594, "as newly set forth, overseen, and corrected by W. S.," sometimes assigned to Peele, and in an earlier form perhaps acted about 1590.
— from Tragedy by Ashley Horace Thorndike

Answer me—mine or his?” “His to the last!” cried she, with a wild shriek; and clasping both her hands above her head, she would have fallen had he not held her.
— from A Rent In A Cloud by Charles James Lever

Nothing but the general form, and as much of the fibrous structure as could be with perfect ease represented, ought to be attempted at all.
— from The Stones of Venice, Volume 2 (of 3), by John Ruskin