But if of daunger which hereby doth dwell, And homebred evil ye desire to heare, Of a straunge man I can you tidings tell, That wasteth all this countrey farre and neare.
— from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Edmund Spenser

In mind, she was of a strong and vigorous turn, having from her earliest youth devoted herself with uncommon ardour to the study of law; not wasting her speculations upon its eagle flights, which are rare, but tracing it attentively through all the slippery and eel-like crawlings in which it commonly pursues its way.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Blind, maimed, helpless, and despairing, venting his rage in blasphemy and curses, execrating his existence, yet dreading the arrival of death destined to yield him up to greater torments, six miserable days did the Villain languish.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

This is but an herb every year, dying with his stalks to the ground, and rising afresh every Spring, and is like unto the Elder both in form and quality, rising up with square, rough, hairy stalks, four feet high, or more sometimes.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

Beneath that arch of unmoved and eternal lights; some, so remote from this little earth that the learned tell us it is doubtful whether their rays have even yet discovered it, as a point in space where anything is suffered or done: the shadows of the night were broad and black.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

" 2 Then the Lord God said to him, "O Adam, it cannot be now, not until you have ended your days.
— from The First Book of Adam and Eve by Rutherford Hayes Platt

Where then a man has, from his earliest youth, devoted his whole being to an object, which by the admission of all civilized nations in all ages is honourable as a pursuit, and glorious as an attainment; what of all that relates to himself and his family, if only we except his moral character, can have fairer claims to his protection, or more authorize acts of self-defence, than the elaborate products of his intellect and intellectual industry?
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I suppose, therefore, that you might despise the slothfulness of Nero, and, like limbs of the body that are broken or dislocated, you did then lie quiet, waiting for some other time, though still with a malicious intention, and have now showed your distemper to be greater than ever, and have extended your desires as far as your impudent and immense hopes would enable you to do it.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

I verily believe that a demon of mischief presides over borrowed goods, and takes a wicked pleasure in playing off a thousand malicious pranks upon you the moment he enters your dwelling.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

"Many have sought to discover the Island of Gee-Whiz on account of its great riches, but no one has ever yet done so.
— from The King of Gee-Whiz by Emerson Hough

Having thus convinced the father of my determination, I was accepted as a novice and made to serve a novitiate of a year, during which time the rule was read to me three times, each time with the admonition: "This is the law under which you have expressed your desire to live; if you are able to obey it, enter; if not, depart a free man."
— from A Source Book for Mediæval History Selected Documents illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age by Oliver J. (Oliver Joseph) Thatcher

I have endured everything that a woman can endure, since he left; I have been a prey to every imaginable fear—” “I am very unfortunate in that I have earned your dislike.
— from The Fortune of the Landrays by Vaughan Kester

"How extraordinary you did not mention this to me," exclaimed Winter.
— from Kate Vernon: A Tale. Vol. 3 (of 3) by Mrs. Alexander

And suppose you could only read it on this condition: that you would never forget it, but would have to go through life knowing ahead of time exactly how everything you did would turn out, and foreseeing to the exact hour the time when you would die.
— from Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

He examined you, didn't he?
— from Twelve Men by Theodore Dreiser

he exclaimed; "you don't mean to say you live in a place like this?
— from Love, the Fiddler by Lloyd Osbourne

Indeed, I am sorry to say there was too much reason for this conjecture; the lad having from his earliest years discovered a propensity to many vices, and especially to one which hath as direct a tendency as any other to that fate which we have just now observed to have been prophetically denounced against him: he had been already convicted of three robberies, viz., of robbing an orchard, of stealing a duck out of a farmer's yard, and of picking Master Blifil's pocket of a ball.
— from History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding