He fought like a fiend, shrieking in the abandonment of his despair, and notwithstanding the noose round him, and the efforts of the men who held his legs, the advancing wretches were for the moment unable to accomplish their purpose, which, horrible and incredible as it seems, was to put the red-hot pot upon his head .
— from She by H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Choused and chagrined, yet shunning blame, He promised, set the hour, and came; As fearful lest a favour spurn’d Should to an open breach be turn’d.
— from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes by Phaedrus

Indeed upon any theme of the most admired, because simply the most abstruse of the boasted erudition of the academy, have I ever found Ligeia at fault?
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

It is not in my power to believe that passive and dead matter can have brought forth living and feeling beings, that blind chance has brought forth intelligent beings, that that which does not think has brought forth thinking beings.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The last part runs: “The canoe flies, the canoe flies in the morning, the canoe flies at sunrise, the canoe flies like a flying witch,” ending up with the onomatopoetic words “ Saydidi, tatata, numsa ,” which represent the flapping of pandanus streamers in the wind, or as others say, the noises made by the flying witches, as they move through the air on a stormy night.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

We might perhaps have rather expected Georgiana, on the analogy of Aureliana (Orleans), from Aurelius, or Georgia, after Julia, a frequent local appellation from the imperial Julius.—Already, had Georgius, temp.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

For the person ill in body is aware of it and calls loudly for the doctor, and when he comes allows him to anoint his eye, to open a vein, or to plaster up his head; but you hear mad Agave in her frenzy not knowing her dearest ones, but crying out, "We bring from the mountain to the halls a young stag recently torn limb from limb, a fortunate capture."
— from Plutarch's Morals by Plutarch

When the coach set out for Lagny a few minutes later, it did not encounter him in the principal street of Chelles.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The former, with his fatal bow, A noble deer had laid full low: A fawn approach'd, and quickly lay Companion of the dead, For side by side they bled.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

A philosopher for instance, in the midst of the coolest and most transmontane feats of abstraction feels like a fish that enters its element: while colours and tones oppress him; not to speak of those dumb desires—of that which others call "the ideal."
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The leading man, in an impassioned ecstasy which possessed him from head to foot, seemed transfigured; once it was as though a strong wind had swept over the stage—their arms, their feathered fingers thrilling with an emotion that shook my nerves as well: heads and bodies followed like a field of grain before a gust.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 18 by Robert Louis Stevenson

Talk of free schools and free libraries, and free baths and wash-houses and such!
— from The Wouldbegoods by E. (Edith) Nesbit

I had then been free and in arms fighting, like my forefathers, for love, for loyalty, and for fame.
— from Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 1 by Walter Scott

" The flames leaped and flickered in the chimney, they touched the wrinkled hands, whose only beauty was in their deeds; they crossed the room and lit the pillows where, for three generations, young heads had dreamed, and gray heads had watched and suffered; then they mounted to the chimney and struck a gleam from the sword.
— from Stories by American Authors (Volume 4) by H. C. (Henry Cuyler) Bunner

Between August 4 and September 21, 1914, the Local Government Board received over 600 applications from local authorities for powers to borrow money amounting in all to over £2,500,000.
— from The War and Democracy by John Dover Wilson

He took up the clear, foaming glass, from up whose centre the tiny beads were rising fast, like a fountain, to break and add to the sparkling foam.
— from Sir Hilton's Sin by George Manville Fenn

Sorrow and grief of heart Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man; Yet he is come.
— from The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by William Shakespeare

1 Holy men, inspired lawgivers, prophets, messiahs, have searched it for life, and found only torment and death.
— from God and the State by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin