why a but?” “Well, Sir,” said Mrs. Mirvan (with a good humoured smile), “I will even treat you with your own plainness, and try what effect that will have on you: I must therefore tell you, once for all-” “O pardon me, Madam!” interrupted he, eagerly, “you must not proceed with those words once for all; no, if I have been too plain, and though a man, deserve a rebuke, remember, dear ladies that if you copy, you ought in justice to excuse me.”
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

I say so because Don Fernando made all haste to leave me, and by the adroitness of my maid, who was indeed the one who had admitted him, gained the street before daybreak; but on taking leave of me he told me, though not with as much earnestness and fervour as when he came, that I might rest assured of his faith and of the sanctity and sincerity of his oaths; and to confirm his words he drew a rich ring off his finger and placed it upon mine.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Nor is the prospect by water less grand and astonishing than that by land: you see three stupendous bridges, joining the opposite banks of a broad, deep, and rapid river; so vast, so stately, so elegant, that they seem to be the work of the giants; betwixt them, the whole surface of the Thames is covered with small vessels, barges, boats, and wherries, passing to and fro; and below the three bridges, such a prodigious forest of masts, for miles together, that you would think all the ships in the universe were here assembled.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

When Leibnitz and Wolff, following out the Cartesian view, built up out of abstract ideas their Rational Psychology, and constructed a deathless anima rationalis (rational soul); then the natural claims of the animal kingdom visibly rose up against this exclusive privilege, this human patent of immortality, and Nature, as always in such circumstances, entered her silent protest.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer

The prince, in a tone at once dignified and respectful, replied: "Tell the Rana I can divine the cause of his headache; but the error is irremediable, and if he refuses to put a plate ( kansa ) before me, who will?"
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

She's a democrat, a red republican, a member of the Peace Society, a socialist—' 'Papa, it's all because I'm standing up for the progress of commerce.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody; never a one, ne'er a one[contr]; no such thing, none in the world; nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth; not a particle &c. (smallness) 32; all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense; matter of no importance, matter of no consequence, thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter; nominis umbra[Lat], nonentity; flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil[Lat].
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

He glanced at her smooth hands, her diamond and ruby rings.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

ANT: Departure, abandonment, resignation, retirement, diminution, decrease, efflux, ebb, drain, subsidence.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

Shortly after Richard's departure, a round, rosy-faced personage, whose rusty black cassock, hastily huddled over a dark riding-dress, proclaimed him a churchman, entered the hostel.
— from The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest by William Harrison Ainsworth

One of its most conspicuous buildings is the stately Ritterholm Church, which Madame Pfeiffer describes as resembling rather a vault and an armoury than a religious edifice.
— from The Story of Ida Pfeiffer and Her Travels in Many Lands by Anonymous

His dialogues are rhetorical rather than dramatic.
— from Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 1 by George Grote

They came to Tara in a body, fasted against him, and laid their heavy curse on him, on Tara, and, in the result, on the kingship.—"Alas!" said Dermot, "for the iniquitous contest that ye have waged against me, seeing that it is Ireland's good I pursue, and to preserve her discipline and royal right; but it is Ireland's unpeace and murderousness ye endeavor after."
— from The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Kenneth Morris

The strain, however, was different, and rather resembled the music of the Methodist hymns, though the measure of the song was similar to that of the former: "When the fight of grace is fought— When the marriage vest is wrought— When Faith hath chased cold Doubt away, And Hope but sickens at delay— "When Charity, imprisoned here, Longs for a more expanded sphere, Doff thy robes of sin and clay; Christian, rise, and come away.
— from The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 2 by Walter Scott

"We were doing a record run.
— from The Treasure of Heaven: A Romance of Riches by Marie Corelli

We then scrambled down into the hole, and entered a long and lofty passage, the floor of which was covered with great stones and masses of rock, over which it was with great difficulty that we could proceed, and the roof and sides presented nothing but dark and rugged rock, unadorned by stalactites.
— from Journal of a Tour in the Years 1828-1829, through Styria, Carniola, and Italy, whilst Accompanying the Late Sir Humphrey Davy by J. J. Tobin

The tissue of the paper itself has in many cases been attacked by damp and rotted right through.
— from Suppressed Plates, Wood-engravings, &c. Together with Other Curiosities Germane Thereto; Being an Account of Certain Matters Peculiarly Alluring to the Collector by George Somes Layard

To my dismay a railway ran between the road and the river, almost at the very water's edge.
— from Across America by Motor-cycle by C. K. Shepherd