According to a mediæval tradition, Holda dwelt in a cave in the Hörselberg, in Thuringia, where she was known as Frau Venus, and was considered as an enchantress who lured mortals into her realm, where she detained them for ever, steeping their senses in all manner of sensual pleasures.
— from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber

Your comrades are a shabby pack, Gaunt, bony, lean in side and back, Pining for hunger, scurvy, hollow, Fighting for every scrap they swallow.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

Just as in old days there were so many government functionaries that one had to call in a functionary for every single thing, so now everyone’s doing some sort of public duty.
— from Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

Just let the computer call your favorite email service to send the letter.
— from The Online World by Odd De Presno

A foundation for all morality can first be laid only when a stronger individuality or a collective individuality, for example society, the state, subjects the single personalities, hence builds upon their unification and establishes a bond of union.
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Some wished to reoccupy their position in the Mairie, but it was impossible for them to maintain any defence there, the Mairie being open and commanded from every side; they scaled the walls and scattered themselves about in the neighboring houses; others escaped by the narrow passage of the boulevard which led into the Rue Saint Jean; most of the combatants reached the opposite side of the boulevard, while those who had a cartridge left fired a last volley upon the troops from the height of the paving-stones.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

Fresh carved cedar, mimicking a glade Of palm and plantain, met from either side, High in the midst, in honour of the bride: Two palms and then two plantains, and so on, From either side their stems branch'd one to one All down the aisled place; and beneath all There ran a stream of lamps straight on from wall to wall.
— from Lamia by John Keats

The flashes of fire from the cannon, the quick flaring flames and smoke, and the immense roar—the musketry so general, the light nearly bright enough for each side to see the other—the crashing, tramping of men—the yelling—close quarters—we hear the secesh yells—our men cheer loudly back, especially if Hooker is in sight—hand to hand conflicts, each side stands up to it, brave, determin'd as demons, they often charge upon us—a thousand deeds are done worth to write newer greater poems on—and still the woods on fire—still many are not only scorch'd—too many, unable to move, are burned to death.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

If she went into the lounge on her return from Eaton Square, the same effect was noticeable.
— from Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert George Jenkins

I find established so to speak in this Christian city the cult of Xanthos, tribal god of the fair-skins at the Cathedral, or for the present the Pro-Cathedral.
— from Cinderella in the South: Twenty-Five South African Tales by Arthur Shearly Cripps

They might possibly avoid the man by making a long détour to some other gate, but this plan appealed to neither of them, for even should they succeed in escaping by some other outlet, the ground outside the walls was so bare that the man must inevitably see them.
— from A Chinese Command: A Story of Adventure in Eastern Seas by Harry Collingwood

One with another make music unheard of men, Where the dead sweet roses fade not of lips long breathless, And the fair eyes shine that shall weep not or change again, Who comes now crowned with the blossom of snow‑white years?
— from Poems & Ballads (Second Series) Swinburne's Poems Volume III by Algernon Charles Swinburne

The two great nations of the orient were now at war, one with forty millions of inhabitants, the other with four hundred millions, fighting on the soil of their helpless neighbor, a nation which was to act as little more than a buffer for the shock of war from either side to strike.
— from The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea by Trumbull White

"She'll be hunting about for 'em soon," thought Sally, "and then I'll give 'em to her."
— from The Duchess of Rosemary Lane: A Novel by B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon

There were ten chamber waiters, and twenty-four lackeys in livery; a maitre-d'hôtel , and attendants of the kitchen; a French cook; a body cook; ten cooks; six cooks' assistants; two Braten masters, or masters of the roast—(one fancies enormous spits turning slowly, and the honest masters of the roast beladling the dripping); a pastry baker; a pie baker; and finally, three scullions, at the modest remuneration of eleven thalers.
— from Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges by William Makepeace Thackeray

But his much speaking seemed to come rather of restlessness than of a fall 'experience,' so torn, subtle, and difficult were the things he said.
— from The History of David Grieve by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

To seize one of the long, heavy ash oars that formed part of the boat’s equipment, fling the blade over the stern, and jerk the oar into the sculling notch, with the idea of sculling the boat back to the wreck was, with me, the work of but a second or two; but although I contrived, with some labour, to get the boat’s head round toward the Dolphin , and to keep it pointed in that direction, I soon discovered—as I might have had the sense to know—that to scull a big heavy boat like the longboat to windward against such a strong wind and so heavy a sea was a task altogether beyond the power of a single man, however strong he might be; for every sea that swept down upon the boat sent her surging away a good half-dozen fathoms to leeward.
— from A Middy of the Slave Squadron: A West African Story by Harry Collingwood