The Italian male-soprano, a huge pot-bellied giant, horrified me with his high effeminate voice, his astonishing volubility, and his incessant screeching laughter.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

" Hundreds of pilgrims annually visit a house in Salem, belonging to one branch of the Ingersoll family of that place, which is stoutly maintained to have been the model for Hawthorne's visionary dwelling.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

However signal the progress of our age may be in the useful arts and in aesthetics, especially in upholstery, in chemistry, in the government of large cities, and in the purity of commerce, in pottery, pills, and poetry, and in the dignity of politics, nothing, we may venture to say, will so distinctly and so broadly characterize the period in which we happily live, when the future historian shall sweep with his star-seeker over the past, as the joyful fact, that we, above all others, have divested ourselves of long-cherished errors, hugged by our forefathers as truths full of life and vigor, and have, indeed, so to speak, founded a Novum Organon in fact and reality, while the great Bacon proposed one in mind and theory.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

The pupa, which in closely related forms, in regions further to the south, is suspended free in the air upon a blade of grass or like object, is in this case made in the ground, which must be a very advantageous habit is so raw a climate.
— from Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 by Various

Let him go to Table Rock, and creep forward to its jutting edge, and gaze steadily into the foaming and eddying waters so far beneath him, until his nerves thrill and vibrate, and he involuntarily shrinks back, exclaiming,— “How dreadful And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!
— from The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences by Edward Hitchcock

"His haughty spirit was still reluctant to the making a declaration that would have done justice to so worthy a character as the person to whom he was now united; and indeed his uncontrollable temper and high opinion of his own actions made him a very awful husband, ill suited to Lady Peterborough's good sense, amiable temper, and delicate sentiments.
— from History of the Opera from its Origin in Italy to the present Time With Anecdotes of the Most Celebrated Composers and Vocalists of Europe by H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland) Edwards

At various times the outer wall has been altered, but the Fort as we have it to-day is the selfsame Fort St. George nevertheless, a glorious relic of bygone times, and verily a history in stone.
— from The Story of Madras by Glyn Barlow

St. George of Cappodocia, “Martyr and Victor,” as he is sometimes styled, one of the seven champions of Christendom, was, no doubt, brought into connection with Cyprus, under the influence of Richard and his knights.
— from Cyprus: Historical and Descriptive by Franz von Löher

But the work of cleaning, painting and varnishing a hull intrinsically sound may be accomplished by the man or boy of average intelligence and industry.
— from Boat Sailing in Fair Weather and Foul, 6th ed. by A. J. (Ahmed John) Kenealy

She went to Mr Stanmore and told him that she was certain Mrs Petre was not only perfectly sick of her companion, but that she had actually one day, during a visit, asked her if she could possibly return to her service.
— from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 686 February 17, 1877 by Various

[ 159 ] He received a sound education in the school of the Mekhitarists at Venice, and he is said to speak both the French and the English languages.
— from Armenia, Travels and Studies (Volume 2 of 2) The Turkish Provinces by H. F. B. (Harry Finnis Blosse) Lynch