The harmony of his mind became completely disturbed; a perpetual excitement and mental irritation, which weakened his natural powers, produced the saddest effects upon him, and rendered him at length the victim of an exhaustion against which he struggled with still more painful efforts than he had displayed, even in contending with his other misfortunes.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

During all this time, no tender, no grateful reflections arose to restrain his purpose; but when the poor gentleman had let his company out through the office, Fisher came suddenly from his lurking-place, and walking softly behind his friend into his chamber, discharged a pistol-ball into his head.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

How the reverend gentlemen came to know so much about it does not appear, but they certainly danced a polka, a gallop, and a trois-temps waltz.
— from The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in All His Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley

Very fitly does Mr. Veblen, in his interesting book, [11] call decorum "a product and an exponent of the leisure-class life."
— from Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe

The tavern-keepers sell us such liquor that, before a man knows where he is, a glassful of it has eaten a hole through his stomach, and made him feel as though he could drink a pail of water.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

They thought it reasonable that, since he was to have the honour and advantage, he should bear the greatest share of the charges, and retrench what he lost to sharpers and spent upon country dances and puppet plays to apply it to that use.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

If you choose, I will make a Magic and I will give you this pair of scissors, very sharp and strong, so that you and your children can eat cocoa-nuts like this all day long when you come up from the Sea to the land; or you can dig a Pusat Tasek for yourself with the scissors that belong to you when there is no stone or hole near by; and when the earth is too hard, by the help of these same scissors you can run up a tree.’
— from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Our company my uncle Wight, Captain Lambert, one Captain Davies, and purser Barter, Mr. Rawlinson, and ourselves; and very merry.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

My worthy friend, the nature of women is set forth before our eyes and represented to us by the moon, in divers other things as well as in this, that they squat, skulk, constrain their own inclinations, and, with all the cunning they can, dissemble and play the hypocrite in the sight and presence of their husbands; who come no sooner to be out of the way, but that forthwith they take their advantage, pass the time merrily, desist from all labour, frolic it, gad abroad, lay aside their counterfeit garb, and openly declare and manifest the interior of their dispositions, even as the moon, when she is in conjunction with the sun, is neither seen in the heavens nor on the earth, but in her opposition, when remotest from him, shineth in her greatest fulness, and wholly appeareth in her brightest splendour whilst it is night.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

The colonel drew a perfect bead on Grump's temple.
— from Romance of California Life Illustrated by Pacific Slope Stories, Thrilling, Pathetic and Humorous by John Habberton

The author had carefully avoided the "flowery and inviting" course of romance, and had written in silent obedience to the stern dictates of an inspiration which, as we have seen, only came at intervals, leaving her between its visits cruelly depressed and pained, but which when it came held her spell-bound and docile.
— from Charlotte Brontë: A Monograph by T. Wemyss (Thomas Wemyss) Reid

They did not return until I had taken the camera down and put it away.
— from The Sheep Eaters by William Alonzo Allen

He was much perturbed by a proposal to allow no chess on Sundays, and jokingly threatens a rider that smoking too shall be forbidden, except to those who undertake to sit silent for an hour in religious contemplation, and that, as further penance for the members, one of them shall "read twelve minutes every hour alta voce e con declamazione a parliamentary speech from Mr Plumpton or Sir Robert Inglis or a chapter from the second volume of Tancred by D'Israeli."
— from The Life of Mazzini by Bolton King

This sentence is lengthened by means of a series of infinitives used as adverbial modifiers of the complement disposed (a participle used as an adjective).
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge

The Catholics desired a public declaration of toleration.
— from A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) by Leopold von Ranke

The parade ground, excavated well below high-water level to provide sand-filling, was cleared, drained, and partially rebuilt.
— from Fort Sumter National Monument, South Carolina by Frank Barnes

{322} OF CARVING It is not uncommon to see an elaborate piece of furniture, in decorating which it is evident that the carver has had opportunity for the exercise of all his skill, and which, indeed, bears evidence of the most skilful woodcutting on almost every square inch of its surface, from the contemplation of which neither an artist nor an educated craftsman can derive any pleasure or satisfaction.
— from Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society by Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society

The end of the fifth chapter could not be reached, and then the teacher explained, “That is all they can do at present.”
— from Papuan Pictures by H. M. Dauncey

Maria Leczinska delighted in the art of painting, and imagined she herself could draw and paint.
— from Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete by Various