Something of this charm of mournful pathos lingered on the beautiful features of this nymph,—an expression so delicate and shadowy that it seemed to address itself only to finer natures.
— from Agnes of Sorrento by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Notwithstanding my perplexity and dissatisfaction, I was led to conform to what the Pope had enjoined, as to the intermission of my penitential exercises; and I wandered for some days idly through the streets of Rome, meditating chiefly on my past life, on the penitence which I had undergone, and the career which was yet before me.
— from The Devil's Elixir, Vol. 2 (of 2) by E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus) Hoffmann

True, there was no war or poverty on Earth proper, but that was because there were only a couple of million people left on the planet.
— from The Man Outside by Evelyn E. Smith