And I placed in the class of extremes especially all promises by which somewhat of our freedom is abridged; not that I disapproved of the laws which, to provide against the instability of men of feeble resolution, when what is sought to be accomplished is some good, permit engagements by vows and contracts binding the parties to persevere in it, or even, for the security of commerce, sanction similar engagements where the purpose sought to be realized is indifferent: but because I did not find anything on earth which was wholly superior to change, and because, for myself in particular, I hoped gradually to perfect my judgments, and not to suffer them to deteriorate, I would have deemed it a grave sin against good sense, if, for the reason that I approved of something at a particular time, I therefore bound myself to hold it for good at a subsequent time, when perhaps it had ceased to be so, or I had ceased to esteem it such.
— from Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences by René Descartes

“Baal snake bunyip,” cried Shanter, angrily, naming the imaginary demon of the blacks’ dread.
— from The Dingo Boys: The Squatters of Wallaby Range by George Manville Fenn

Isabel's lips quivered as she replied, "I trust in God that you may, Mr Forster!—but—I feel more anxious now than I did on the former occasion.
— from Newton Forster by Frederick Marryat

Up to this moment that thought had never occurred to the young hunters; and now that it did occur, they stood watching the movements of the bear with feelings of keen apprehension.
— from Bruin: The Grand Bear Hunt by Mayne Reid

"This is treacherous weather for ears and noses, there is danger of their getting frozen; rub them, and also your face, now and then with snow.
— from The Land of the Long Night by Paul B. (Paul Belloni) Du Chaillu

The “equitable proportion” of Imperial taxation to which the taxes of Ireland had been restricted by the terms of the Act of Union had proved to be inequitable, so that Ireland was overtaxed to the extent of two-and-three-quarter millions of pounds per annum: new taxes in defiance of the Act had been imposed: Ireland, again in defiance of the Act, had been made jointly responsible for a debt which was not her own: Irish banks and Irish railways were managed not with reference to Irish interests but in the interests
— from The Evolution of Sinn Fein by Robert Mitchell Henry

And now the important day of the election had arrived, and some men's hearts beat quickly enough.
— from Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Now another time, when ye are stronger in heart than now ye be, I may tell you tales thereof closer and more nicely of those who did his will; as of his innermost band of men-at-arms, called the Millers; and of his fellow-worker in wizardry and venoms, called the Apothecary; and the three hags, called the Furies; and the three young women, called the Graces; and his hounds that love man’s flesh; and the like tales, as evil as nightmares turned into deeds of the day.
— from The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris

In the year 1822 the congregations appear to have attracted the attention of the English Quakers, for I find a notice that in December of that year they were visited by William Allen, a Quaker minister from London, who seems to have been a man of wealth.
— from The Communistic Societies of the United States From Personal Visit and Observation by Charles Nordhoff