At church “sociables” he was always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps, and “wall” their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, “Words cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal earth.”
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Do you know that I can shut my eyes and see the hills and meadows and orchard, fairer than any ever put in colours on the canvas?
— from Days in the Open by Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus) Crandall

If they are naturally energetic and smart, they have a much better chance of rising in the world than Ned has; but let them, when they laugh at Ned and abuse him, remember the fable of the hare and the tortoise.
— from Parkhurst Boys, and Other Stories of School Life by Talbot Baines Reed

ed, looked eagerly, and smiled to herself as Magdalen came out.
— from No Name by Wilkie Collins

“As a prisoner, Sire?” “No,” said the King, still fixing Denis with his eyes, and speaking to him as much as to the chamberlain.
— from The King's Esquires; Or, The Jewel of France by George Manville Fenn

'I only wanted to know so far, because I would suggest that you should send for Prince Egon and simply tell him as much as you have told me.
— from Wanda, Vol. 3 (of 3) by Ouida

It was not the voice of a horse but of a fiend, for it came out of the bowels of the earth, and shook the hills, and made the trees quake.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 6, November 1893 by Various

As they arose from their half-kneeling posture, the prince embraced the earl, and said to him: “Accept my sincere congratulations, cousin.
— from Preston Fight; or, The Insurrection of 1715 by William Harrison Ainsworth

But I am to wait on the Commissioners at Whitehall for regulating the Customs, on Tuesday morning (who sit not till then); they have power to grant the custom thereof, and carrying the letter from your Lordship, I question not but will take effect, and so they have acquainted me; which letter I send enclosed, that you may please in the superscription to add to the word Commissioners, ‘for regulating, etc.,’ which then will be fit to present to the said committee.
— from A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. by Bulstrode Whitlocke

At church "sociables" he was always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps, and "wall" their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, "Words cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal earth."
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 2. by Mark Twain

One of the satires on the fashions of the period, which in every age seem to have afforded materials for mirth, begins as follows [Pg 202] — "Ye prowd gallonttes hertlesse With your hyghe cappis witlesse, And youre schort gownys thriftlesse, Have brought this londe in gret hevynesse.
— from History of English Humour, Vol. 1 With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour by A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan) L'Estrange