It must be her ardent wish that Harriet might be disappointed; and she hoped, that when able to see them together again, she might at least be able to ascertain what the chances for it were.—She should see them henceforward with the closest observance; and wretchedly as she had hitherto misunderstood even those she was watching, she did not know how to admit that she could be blinded here.—He was expected back every day.
— from Emma by Jane Austen

For everything that partakes of life may be truly called a living being, and the animal of which we are now speaking partakes of the third kind of soul, which is said to be seated between the midriff and the navel, having no part in opinion or reason or mind, but only in feelings of pleasure and pain and the desires which accompany them.
— from Timaeus by Plato

Nelson , Horatio, afterward Lord, British Admiral, tactics at the battle of the Nile, 10 ; Trafalgar campaign, 11 , 23 (note), 527 , 532 , 533 ; tactics at Trafalgar, 12 , 354 , 459 ; enforces Navigation Act, 60 , 251 ; orders at Trafalgar, 112 , 434 ; at battle of Cape St. Vincent, 157 , 355 , 368 ; celebrated sayings of, 185 , 362 , 435 , 525 , 527 , 532 ; attachment of subordinates to, 267 ; position assumed by him in battle, 353-358 .
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

The Tandān pours oil on her head three times, and she receives a little betel and two annas.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

It was, however, continued without any apparent consequences, until the moon had set, and a pale streak above the treetops, at the bend of the river a little below, announced the approach of day.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

It was this, answered Cyrus, one of the big boys, of the school having a small coat, gave it to a little boy and took away from him his coat, which was larger.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Betimes I to Alderman Backewell, and with him to my Lord Ashly’s, where did a little business about Tangier, and to talk about the business of certificates, wherein, contrary to what could be believed, the King and Duke of York themselves, in my absence, did call for some of the Commissioners of the Treasury, and give them directions about the business [of the certificates], which I, despairing to do any thing on a Sunday, and not thinking that they would think of it themselves, did rest satisfied, and stayed at home all yesterday, leaving it to do something in this day; but I find that the King and Duke of York had been so pressing in it, that my Lord Ashly was more forward with the doing of it this day, than I could have been.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

At night grew a little better and took a glyster of sacke, but taking it by halves it did me not much good, I taking but a little of it.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Isaac looked a little blank at this annunciation.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

Meanwhile, the lady, having seven times said her conjuration, began to look for the two damsels and so long was her waiting (more by token that she felt it cooler than she could have wished) that she saw the dawn appear; whereupon, woeful that it had not befallen as the scholar had told her, she said in herself, 'I fear me yonder man hath had a mind to give me a night such as that which I gave him; but, an that be his intent, he hath ill known to avenge himself, for that this night hath not been as long by a third as was his, forbye that the cold was of anothergates sort.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

We were walking through the orchard flush with bloom, when she stopped beneath a low boughed apple tree, and asked me to pluck a spray for her, then twisted it into a wreath, and laughingly bade me crown her queen of May.
— from Donald McElroy, Scotch Irishman by Willie Walker Caldwell

Then a long breath, and then: "Adieu!"
— from The Eternal City by Caine, Hall, Sir

It covered a long bed, and the awning usually placed upon it to keep the sun off the flowers in the summer was not there.
— from The History of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk Girl by Richard Cobbold

Never man could tell me how to shape that process—no counsel that ever selled mind could condescend and say whether it were best to proceed by way of petition and complaint, AD VINDICTAM PUBLICAM, with consent of his Majesty’s advocate, or by action on the statute for battery PENDENTE LITE, whilk would be the winning my plea at once, and so getting a back-door out of court.—By the Regiam, that beef and brandy is unco het at my heart—I maun try the ale again’ (sipped a little beer); ‘and the ale’s but cauld, I maun e’en put in the rest of the brandy.’
— from Redgauntlet: A Tale Of The Eighteenth Century by Walter Scott

Its first duty was to learn the new drill and discipline introduced by the King of Sweden; and as his system was destined to be accepted later by all the armies of Europe, no better place can be found than this, when it was just brought to perfection and first taught to British soldiers, to give some brief account of it.
— from A History of the British Army, Vol. 1 First Part—to the Close of the Seven Years' War by Fortescue, J. W. (John William), Sir

You must remember that it was a little boat; and there are often tremendous storms upon these small lakes with great mountains about them.
— from The Seaboard Parish Volume 1 by George MacDonald

“The herbe Wolfebaine or Liberdine is poison to Foxes, Wolves, Dogs, and Beares, and to all beasts that are littered blind, as the Alpine Rhætians affirme.
— from Curious Creatures in Zoology by John Ashton