“Justin,” cried the druggist, “bring us the sulphuric acid.”
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Being a sincere convert to virtue, he had changed his name, that he might elude the enquiries of the count, whose generous allowance he determined to forego, that he might have no dependence but upon his own industry and moderation.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

One individual went from door to door, bending under the weight of swords, guns, muskets and every kind of weapon, which he deposited as fast as he could.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

It is so well known, that it needs no description, being used with the clothworkers.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

The blood-stains were very slight, mere smears and discolourations, but undoubtedly fresh.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Yet could those days return—could you and I once more walk our thirty miles a-day—could Bannister and Mrs. Bland again be young, and you and I be young to see them—could the good old one shilling gallery days return—they are dreams, my cousin, now—but could you and I at this moment, instead of this quiet argument, by our well-carpeted fireside, sitting on this luxurious sofa—be once more struggling up those inconvenient stair-cases, pushed about, and squeezed, and elbowed by the poorest rabble of poor gallery scramblers—could I once more hear those anxious shrieks of yours—and the delicious Thank God, we are safe , which always followed when the topmost stair, conquered, let in the first light of the whole cheerful theatre down beneath us—I know not the fathom line that ever touched a descent so deep as I would be willing to bury more wealth in than Croesus had, or the great Jew R—— is supposed to have, to purchase it.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

A herd of cattle passed along in the dell below, untended, towards their watering place—the grass was rustled by a gentle breeze, and the olive-woods, mellowed into soft masses by the moonlight, contrasted their sea-green with the dark chestnut foliage.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The American knows no difference between unpolitical chatter written with a literary ambition and unliterary comment written with a political ambition.
— from The Americans by Hugo Münsterberg

And therefore when Hellenes fight with barbarians and barbarians with Hellenes, they will be described by us as being at war when they fight, and by nature enemies, and this kind of antagonism should be called war; Hellenic warfare is only a kind of discord not intended to be lasting.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

Our owner, Marse Jim Densen, brung us to Texas and settled near Marlin, but got in debt and sold as all to Marse Felix Grundy, and he kep' us till freedom, and most of us worked for him after that.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Texas Narratives, Part 1 by United States. Work Projects Administration

At some distance before us, the eye fell on an apparently narrow gate, the white walls in the two banks approaching so near to each other, that the river seemed to be very contracted in breadth as it passed between them, [67] and this illusion was heightened by the turn which the Missouri makes in this place to the south-west.
— from Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 2 by Wied, Maximilian, Prinz von

Without the pale of the church the same attacks, a hundred times repelled and a hundred times renewed, are levelled against all the points of Christian doctrine, but under new forms and a fresh vigor.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 08, October, 1868, to March, 1869. by Various

"It shall make no difference between us.
— from Somehow Good by William De Morgan

At this was quite contented my said Sieur de Braguelongne, upon whom my lady of Amboise, excited by the thought of the good things which were happening to her daughter, cast the glances of a falcon in matters of gallant assignation.
— from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac

It will, no doubt, be urged that the admitted continuity of man's progress from the brute does not admit of the introduction of new causes, and that we have no evidence of the sudden change of nature which such introduction would bring about.
— from Darwinism (1889) An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications by Alfred Russel Wallace

He slipped over the ragged mat which formed the eaves, and the next moment, crack, crack, crack , he was hanging feet downwards, and then fell heavily in a cloud of dust bump upon the trampled earth, in company with a snake about six feet long, which began to glide rapidly away.
— from Trapped by Malays: A Tale of Bayonet and Kris by George Manville Fenn

The destroyed Belgian university reconstituted in the home of the celebrated English university.
— from New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915, With Index by Various