The king of the place having offered a reward for the solution of two very difficult problems, they were solved upon the spot—the one by the bees, and the other by the birds; but the king keeping their solution a secret, it was only after the most profound researches and labor, and the writing of an infinity of big books, during a long series of years, that the men-mathematicians at length arrived at the identical solutions which had been given upon the spot by the bees and by the birds.’
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

So when that Angel of the darker Drink At last shall find you by the river-brink,
— from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam

When I get home I go to bed quickly, that I may not see them eating supper; and, shutting my eyes, dream of how fine it would be to endure martyrdom at the hands of some Herod or Dioskorus, to live in the desert, and, like St. Serafim, feed the bears, live in a cell, and eat nothing but holy bread, give my property to the poor, go on a pilgrimage to Kiev.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

also a package with a meadile to accompany a Speech for the Grand Chief after Brackfast we Collected those Indians under an orning of our Main Sail, in presence of our Party paraded & Delivered a long Speech to them expressive of our journey the wirkes of our Government, Some advice to them and Directions how They were to Conduct themselves, the princapal Chief for the nation being absente we sent him the Speech flag Meadel & Some Cloathes.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

"But deeds and language such as men do use, And persons such as comedy would choose, When she would show an image of the times, And sport with human follies, not with crimes.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Not less I dislike a low sympathy of each with his neighbors's needs.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

There Videha’s daughter and Lakshmana shall experience delight in thy company.
— from The Rāmāyana, Volume Two. Āranya, Kishkindhā, and Sundara Kāndam by Valmiki

And with her dies a love so pure and true, It could be killed by nothing but by you.
— from The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 04 by John Dryden

"Well, if I ain't captain, I guess I'd better do a little steering.
— from Dab Kinzer: A Story of a Growing Boy by William O. Stoddard

If two or more radionuclides are emitting gamma rays, a crystal detector distinguishes between their energy levels with much more precision and sensitivity than does a liquid system.
— from Whole Body Counters by F. W. (Frederick W.) Lengemann

Sir, I have the misfortune to be a man of business; that, you will say, is a most grievous one; but what makes it the more so to me, is, that my wife has nothing to do: at least she had too good an education, and the prospect of too good a fortune in reversion when I married her, to think of employing herself either in my shop-affairs, or the management of my family.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 04 The Adventurer; The Idler by Samuel Johnson

‘Il descend avec le sourire d’un Machiavel’ appears as ‘he descends into the smile of a Machiavelli’; George Sand’s remark to Flaubert about literary style, ‘tu la considères comme un but, elle n’est qu’un effet’ is translated ‘you consider it an end, it is merely an effort ’; and such a simple phrase as ‘ainsi le veut Festhe’tique du roman’ is converted into ‘so the æsthetes of the world would have it.’
— from Reviews by Oscar Wilde

Wilton looked down upon the ground with a look of very great pain, while imagination pictured what the future life of some young and innocent girl might be, bound to one so wild, so heedless, and dissolute as Lord Sherbrooke.
— from The King's Highway by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

Hillary wondered why she should be so frightened, why she should look so delighted after looking so scared.
— from Gabrielle of the Lagoon: A Romance of the South Seas by W. H. (William Henry) Myddleton