no more was heard; on, by a deep flume clove through snowy marble, vernal-tinted, where freshet eddies had, on each side, spun out empty chapels in the living rock; on, where Jacks-in-the-pulpit, like their Baptist namesake, preached but to the wilderness; on, where a huge, cross-grain block, fern-bedded, showed where, in forgotten times, man after man had tried to split it, but lost his wedges for his pains—which wedges yet rusted in their holes; on, where, ages past, in step-like ledges of a cascade, skull-hollow pots had been churned out by ceaseless whirling of a flintstone—ever wearing, but itself unworn; on, by wild rapids pouring into a secret pool, but [pg 016] soothed by circling there awhile, issued forth serenely; on, to less broken ground, and by a little ring, where, truly, fairies must have danced, or else some wheel-tire been heated—for all was bare; still on, and up, and out into a hanging orchard, where maidenly looked down upon me a crescent moon, from morning.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

He imitated the gestures and ways of women to perfection, and not a few women would be only too glad to be like him.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

(Over the well of the car Blazes Boylan leans, his boater straw set sideways, a red flower in his mouth.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

Look downward on that globe, whose hither side With light from hence, though but reflected, shines; That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that light His day, which else, as the other hemisphere, Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon (So call that opposite fair star) her aid Timely interposes, and her monthly round Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven, With borrowed light her countenance triform Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth, And in her pale dominion checks the night.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

“You must not be angry with me, in whatever light it may be necessary to set this affair, which, you may depend on it, could not otherwise be long hid from him: for things of this nature make a quick progress when once they get abroad, as this unhappily hath already.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

And round the burning sacrifice they set up a broad dancing-ring, singing, "All hail fair god of healing, Phoebus, all hail," and with them Oeagrus' goodly son began a clear lay on his Bistonian lyre; how once beneath the rocky ridge of Parnassus he slew with his bow the monster Delphyne, he, still young and beardless, still rejoicing in his long tresses.
— from The Argonautica by Rhodius Apollonius

So Sir Launcelot rode over that bridge that was old and feeble; and when he came in midst of a great hall, there he saw lie a dead knight that was a seemly man, and that brachet licked his wounds.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

“That means we’ll be losing him soon, I suppose.”
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

This Man, if any of them go astray or be lost, He will bring them again; He will also bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen them that are [346] sick.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan

Early on the next day there arrived, from various quarters of the town, rich presents of silks, velvets, jewellery, and so forth, for Rose; and also a packet directed to Gerard Douw, which, on being opened, was found to contain a contract of marriage, formally drawn up, between Wilken Vanderhausen of the Boom-quay, in Rotterdam, and Rose Velderkaust of Leyden, niece to Gerard Douw, master in the art of painting, also of the same city; and containing engagements on the part of Vanderhausen to make settlements upon his bride, far more splendid than he had before led her guardian to believe likely, and which were to be secured to her use in the most unexceptionable manner possible—the money being placed in the hands of Gerard Douw himself.
— from The Purcell Papers — Volume 2 by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

The buck lifted his superb head with a snort, and with incredible speed the whole herd galloped away; but in the same moment two bullets whistled after them, and the buck fell flat upon the snow.
— from The Modern Vikings: Stories of Life and Sport in the Norseland by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

Near where he knelt, too, he could see the great relic-chest, and knew what lay therein—the girdle of our Blessed Lady herself, mirror of chastity; the piece of stone marked by Christ's foot as He went up to heaven; a piece of the Very Rood on which He hanged; the precious blood that He shed there, in a crystal vase; the head of saint Benet, father of monks.
— from The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary by Robert Hugh Benson

Like his brother-in-law, the marquis, he had engaged warmly in the French Revolution, in its earlier stages, but, like him, found himself in a proscribed party, and obliged to fly for safety.
— from Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. by Benson John Lossing

They now began to be surrounded by large herds of wolves, who seemed to be conscious of their dire extremity and the probability that they would soon fall an easy prey, yet were cunning enough to keep out of gunshot.
— from Pioneers in Canada by Harry Johnston

It required no reasoning to convince him that Buck Lagger had fired the shot which had narrowly failed to send him to his long home.
— from Brother Against Brother; Or, The War on the Border by Oliver Optic

Before leaving his new companion, Morton obtained from him the name and direction of the person of whom he had spoken as likely to know where Speyer was to be found.
— from Vassall Morton: A Novel by Francis Parkman

"N-o. She is well enough; she isn't a bit like him, if we forget the clothes and temper.
— from Portia; Or, By Passions Rocked by Duchess

But Lucilius had much more than this power of personal raillery, exercised with the force supplied and under the restraints imposed by an energetic social and political life.
— from The Roman Poets of the Republic, 2nd edition by W. Y. (William Young) Sellar

From slighter troubles, through all the more serious and dangerous states arising from injury or produced by spontaneous or specifically aroused inflammation, to the wonderful operations devised to give sight, when the clear and beautiful lens has become clouded, or the delicate muscular meshes of the iris are bound down or drawn together so as to close the pupil and shut out the visible world, the learned and skilful operator comes to our aid, a veritable messenger of mercy.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 62, December, 1862 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various