In the same age we have introduced into England the Spanish picaresque novel (from picaro , a knave or rascal), which at first was a kind of burlesque on the mediæval romance, and which took for its hero some low scoundrel or outcast, instead of a knight, and followed him through a long career of scandals and villainies.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

In those presentments in Tennyson (see the "Idylls of the King"—what sumptuous, perfumed, arras-and-gold Nature, inimitably described, better than any, fit for princes and knights and peerless ladies—wrathful or peaceful, just the same—Vivien and Merlin in their strange dalliance, or the death-float of Elaine, or Geraint and the long journey of his disgraced Enid and himself through the wood, and the wife all day driving the horses,) as in all the great imported art-works, treatises systems, from Lucretius down, there is a constantly lurking often pervading something, that will have to be eliminated, as not only unsuited to modern democracy and science in America, but insulting to them, and disproved by them.{37} Still, the rule and demesne of poetry will always be not the exterior, but interior; not the macrocosm, but microcosm; not Nature, but Man.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

At this rate, namely: of feeding Paris, and keeping it from fighting.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Members of the Organization Convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, St. Louis, May 26, 1911 Reading from left to right: W.B. Johnson, St. Louis; W.T. Jones, New Orleans; George Schulte, St. Louis; C.F. Blanke, St. Louis; Ben Casanas, New Orleans; Carl Stoffregen, St. Louis; Edward D. Hanly, Kansas City; H.C. Grote, St. Louis; James Menown, St. Louis; Frank P. Atha, Kansas City; Henry Petring, St. Louis; J.M. McFadden, Dubuque, Iowa; Joseph Maury, Memphis; T.F. Halligan, Davenport; F.J. Ach, Dayton; Carl Brand, Cleveland; Wm.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

It could be shut off from the rest of the house by a tiny curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious [particular], always kept drawn when dressing or undressing.
— from Peter Pan by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

The fact that they feel themselves isolated, is the most powerful spur in the process of setting themselves the loftiest of aims: their search for happiness is the means which keeps together and moderates the formative powers, and keeps them from being mutually destructive.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

This morning Sir W. Pen and I should have gone out of town with my Lady Batten, to have met Sir William coming back from Portsmouth; at Kingston, but could not, by reason that my Lord of Peterborough (who is to go Governor of Tangier) came this morning, with Sir G. Carteret, to advise with us about completing of the affairs and preparacions for that place.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Charles, vexed both with his father and his wife, then repeated: “The question is—” He had cleared a space of the breakfast-table from plates and knives, so that he could draw patterns on the tablecloth.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

Of this philosopher, who devoted his life to the study of alchymy, but few particulars are known.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

on the foremost prow, a king In form—eye—soul!—again
— from Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 by Various

"When he war down," he resumed, "Jake war gwine to tie him, but de ole 'gator, quicker dan a flash, put a knife enter him."
— from Among the Pines; or, South in Secession Time by James R. (James Roberts) Gilmore

Might not you as well have determined that question a little while ago, friend Public? and known what political economy was , before you talked so much about it?
— from Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne Twenty-five Letters to a Working Man of Sunderland on the Laws of Work by John Ruskin

In Philadelphia town-ball was the favorite pastime and kept out base- ball for some time, while in Boston the local "New England game," as played by the Olympic, Elm Tree, and Green Mountain Clubs, deferred the introduction of base-ball, or, as it was called, "the New York game," until 1857.
— from Base-Ball How to Become a Player, With the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game by John Montgomery Ward

At a later period I took away the dog with me from Paris, and kept it many years, as a loving and faithful memento of those days of solitude.
— from Raphael; Or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty by Alphonse de Lamartine

Even a bachelor of fair prudence and knowledge of the world is not safe in her hands.
— from Modern Women and What is Said of Them A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) by E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton

And, hark in your ear, as you underrate Backbiter, you are a fool, Peppercorn, and know no more of the points of a good horse than you do of the ten commandments.
— from Horse-Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency by John Pendleton Kennedy

This must be the place where Black Eagle Twelve hundred moons ago Stood with folded arms, While a Pottawatomie father Plunged a knife in his heart, For the murder of a son.
— from Toward the Gulf by Edgar Lee Masters