Then replies The Merchant, "With my own two eyes, On yester eve, at close of day, I saw your offspring borne away, With many a struggle, many a howl, To an old ruin, by an owl."
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

The idea reminds us of the dreams of mediaeval alchemists who thought there exists, if one could only discover it, some magic potion which will so transmute every atom of the human body that death can never affect it.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

I have not adopted the classification of duties into Social and Self-regarding: as it seems inappropriate to the Intuitional method, of which the characteristic is, that it lays down certain absolute and independent rules: such as the rule of Truth.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

He wrote concerning the place of the Nativity of our Lord, after this manner: 861 “Bethlehem, the city of David, is situated on a narrow ridge, encompassed on all sides with valleys, being a mile in length from west to east, and having a low wall without towers, built along the edge of the level summit.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

ad eās rēs cōnficiendās Orgetorīx dēligitur. is sibī̆ lēgātiōnem suscēpit , 1, 2, 5, they thought they had a narrow territory; so they resolved in consequence to make such preparations as were necessary for a move.
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane

At the close of day, I saw a big ship passing on the horizon, struggling painfully.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne

Moved by a recollection he took the watch to the maker's just opposite, sold it there and then for what the tradesman offered, and went with the proceeds to one among the smaller of his creditors, a cottager of Durnover in straitened circumstances, to whom he handed the money.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

51-2: ‘ W. I hold that the greatest cause of dissolutenesse in some women in England is this custome of kissing publikely....
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson

Symmetry : that regular arrangement of organs or parts which is capable of division into similar halves or similar radii.
— from Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by John Bernhard Smith

"Okehampton Castle," says Mr. Worth, "differs from the other ancient castles of Devon in several noteworthy features.
— from A Book of the West. Volume 1: Devon Being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

Where this sacred trust is preserved inviolate, you behold a nation convened one day in seven for the purpose of acquainting themselves with the best moral principles and precepts; and it can not be otherwise than that the authority of moral virtue, under such auspices, should be acknowledged and felt.
— from McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey

He dared not even tremble, so fearful was he of betraying his divination and her eyes flashed a warning, and his mind seized triumphantly upon its first intellectual mastery of emotion, and he said to himself: “There are certain feelings and currents of sympathy which can only dwell in silence.”
— from Young Earnest: The Romance of a Bad Start in Life by Gilbert Cannan

When captured or disturbed it spits a large quantity of oily fluid, rank with the odor of putrid fish.
— from Iceland: Horseback tours in saga land by W. S. C. (Waterman Spaulding Chapman) Russell

"Certainly," said the puffing convalescent; "if there was no chance of danger, I should infinitely prefer killing a boar."
— from Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches by Henri de Crignelle

Post-mortem examinations of women dying in premature confinement were thought of, but it was feared that the repugnance which Fijians feel to these examinations would lead to the concealment of death in such cases.
— from The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom by Basil Thomson

Should you be asleep, as is most likely, do not take the trouble of waking; for in a couple of days I shall be with you again.—The strangest being on earth!'
— from The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg by Thomas De Quincey

Both alike will take an interest in the career of Dodo, in spite of his unheroic name, and follow him through his numerous and exciting adventures."— Academy .
— from The Dash for Khartoum: A Tale of the Nile Expedition by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

But in the last couple of days I saw one chuck it in the dirt and trample on it.
— from Tom Slade on Mystery Trail by Percy Keese Fitzhugh