Not that anything can be accepted that is not of faith, but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come Delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan by John Bunyan

His method consists simply in forcing hot air from below into several tons of melted pig-iron, so as to produce intense combustion; and then adding enough spiegel-eisen (looking-glass iron), an ore rich in carbon, to change the whole mass to steel.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Verbs followed by Indirect Statements.
— from Latin for Beginners by Benjamin L. (Benjamin Leonard) D'Ooge

I had not proceded on far before I Saw a ram of the big horn Animal near the top of a Lard.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Then the ocean of religion, which had flooded France, broke into Shelley's light dissolved in star-showers thrown, which had left every remote village strewn with fragments that flashed like jewels, and were tossed into hidden clefts of peace and forgetfulness.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

It was as if a window were thrown open, admitting a freer atmosphere into the close and stifled study, where his life was wasting itself away, amid lamplight, or obstructed day-beams, and the musty fragrance, be it sensual or moral, that exhales from books.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

As for business, I shall never succeed at it.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London

And now that grey hairs have made their appearance, bringing with them sounder thought and the ripe judgment of experience, I often go over my adventures again, and chat about them with Tom, and Sally his wife, when I have taken a run over to their prosperous farm; but in spite of all the success that has attended me and mine, I think, have thought, and I hope I shall still think to my last day, that my journey to the New World, my adventures, and all I gained, would have been but so much vanity and emptiness had I not won Lilla, who has shed upon my life a sunshine such as has proved that after all she was the true gold.
— from The Golden Magnet by George Manville Fenn

My last hope had failed, but I stood on guard, my one regret being that the cowardly Peleton would not trust himself within reach of my sword.
— from My Sword's My Fortune: A Story of Old France by Herbert Hayens

Flower bordered, island studded, and tree margined, with surfaces dotted here and there, by tiny fleets of graceful, shell-like pleasure boats.
— from Solaris Farm: A Story of the Twentieth Century by Milan C. Edson

The Strand was broad and fair enough to view as far as the New Exchange; but in lieu of that magnificent structure which Sir William Chambers, the Swedish architect, has built for Government offices, and where the Royal Academy of Arts and the Learned Societies have their apartments (when I first came to town there was no Royal Academy at all, only a Mean School for painting from the Life and drawing from Bustos in St. Martin's Lane; the Royal Society held their sittings in a court off Fleet Street; the College of Physicians was chock-a-block among the butchers in Warwick Lane, Newgate Market, where it still, to the scandal of Science, remains; and Surgeon's Hall, where malefactors were anatomised after execution—a Sanguinary but Salutary custom—was in the Old Bailey, over against the leads of the Sessions House)—in place, then, of what we now call Somerset House, albeit it has lost all connexion with the proud Duke of that name, there stood the Old [225] Palace of the Queens of England, a remarkable tumbledown barn of a place, hideous in its ugliness towards the Strand, but having some stately edifices at the back, built by that Famous Engineer, Mr. Inigo Jones.
— from The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala

20 At present his habitation is a cabin, the building of which cost only 20 dollars; this little hutch is near the spot where he is about to build his house, which he intends to have in the most eligible situation in the prairie for 49 convenience to fuel and for shelter in winter, as well as for breezes in summer, and will, when that is completed, make one of its appurtenances.
— from Hulme's Journal, 1818-19; Flower's Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 1819; Flower's Letters from the Illinois, 1820-21; and Woods's Two Years' Residence, 1820-21 by John Woods

According to the dictates of my conscience, therefore, I must vote for the acceptance of these terms before us in order to save our families, but I shall record my vote only under protest and with notification that I give it thus for the said reasons.
— from The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902 by J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell

He meant fair, but I said 'No,' for I hadn't given up hopes of what I'd wanted to do, so I didn't want to give the store all my waking hours, as an owner ought to do most of the time."
— from Caleb Wright: A Story of the West by John Habberton

I have stated in my volume that it is hardly possible to know which, i.e. whether instinct or structure, change first by insensible steps.
— from Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin

She had left her quite suddenly, and now wanted to return; and thought it would be far better if she were not to come back until our guests had left.
— from Waldfried: A Novel by Berthold Auerbach