The creeping tide of light gained and gained, and now they could see the colour of the flowers that gemmed the water’s edge.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Go and get a nice large band-box made, and put him in with plenty of cotton-wool and a pap-bottle, labelled 'With care—this side up,' and send him back to mamma.”
— from Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes

Hobotov shrugged his shoulders, grinned, and glanced at Nikita.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In South Africa the competition for browsing on the higher branches of the acacias and other trees must be between giraffe and giraffe, and not with the other ungulate animals.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

The creeping tide of light gained and gained, and now they could see the colour of the flowers that gemmed the water's edge.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

“O Jove,” he cried, “if pray’rs can yet have place; If thou abhorr’st not all the Dardan race; If any spark of pity still remain; If gods are gods, and not invok’d in vain; Yet spare the relics of the Trojan train!
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

Talking about new Ireland he ought to go and get a new dog so he ought.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

For suppose that some one were to take you, or any one of your sort, off to prison, declaring that you had done wrong when you had done no wrong, you must allow that you would not know what to do:—there you would stand giddy and gaping, and not having a word to say; and when you went up before the Court, even if the accuser were a poor creature and not good for much, you would die if he were disposed to claim the penalty of death.
— from Gorgias by Plato

I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways; do your work with a good will, lift your feet up well when you trot, and never bite or kick even in play.”
— from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

It is absolutely impossible, even if the planters wished it, to give any instruction to these poor fellows, so scattered are the settlements, so various the languages on each, and to send a man home with guns and gunpowder, and no touch of Christian teaching, is surely suicidal policy.
— from Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

And must these eyes,—so soft and mild, As angel's bright, as fairy's wild, Swimming in lustrous dew, Now sparkling lively, gay, and glad, And now their spirit melting sad
— from The Isle of Palms, and Other Poems by John Wilson

In these courts there were two methods of procedure; first, the accused might clear himself of the charge brought against him by compurgations[1]; that is, by swearing that he was not guilty and getting a number of reputable neighbors to swear that they believed his oath.
— from The Leading Facts of English History by D. H. (David Henry) Montgomery

Highly imaginative, and with a power of expression that was positively marvellous, he gave to ordinary conversation an elevation that actually conferred honour on those who were associated with it; and high above all these gifts and graces, a noble nature, generous, hopeful, and confiding.
— from Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General by Charles James Lever

When the people came to Mass they gazed and gazed, and now and then the weeping of a woman was heard, for among them were those whose sons and brothers were made memorable by this stone.
— from The Lane That Had No Turning, Complete by Gilbert Parker

“With pleasure, with readiness, with joy,” cried Cecilia, “should you find assistance from me, were it to you alone it were given; but to supply fuel for the very fire that is consuming you—no, no, my whole heart is hardened against gaming and gamesters, and neither now nor ever will I suffer any consideration to soften me in their favour.”
— from Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 2 by Fanny Burney

His lordship was now within twenty-five miles of Greene, at Guilford, and nearer the shallow fords of the Dan than he was; and on the ninth of February 1781 he resumed his march with vigor, to gain a position in front of the Americans.
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing

American talent has been very prolific in this species of authorship; and that person [481] must be well versed in the subject, who can give even the names of those who have produced spelling-books, reading-books, English grammars, arithmetics, geographies, astronomies, natural philosophies, and other books of school literature and science.
— from The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 6, December 1837 by Various

“And when he comes nearer to finish his race, Like a fine setting sun he looks richer in grace, And gives a new hope at the end of his days Of rising in brighter array.”
— from The Coming Night A Sermon Preached in Cromer Church, on Friday, June 12, 1857, on occasion of the death of Anna Gurney by Edward Hoare