Then he took the staff of a javelin, about five foot and a half long, and put it upon the two glasses, so that the two ends of the staff did come just to the brims of the glasses.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

She laughed and made jokes and funny faces, and this suited her better than talking about unjust riches, and it seemed to me that what she had said about "riches and comfort" came not from herself, but was just mimicry.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Her heart must be just as soft, her temper just as free from angles, her character just as pliant.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

My footman told me in a loud voice that my lady wife, my daughter, and a gentleman had just arrived from Frankfort, and were awaiting me at the inn.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Where the sun had gone down in simple state—pure of the pomp of clouds—spread a solemn purple, burning with the light of red jewel and furnace flame at one point, on one hill-peak, and extending high and wide, soft and still softer, over half heaven.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

They were darker, had thicker lips, lower foreheads, larger heads, more advancing jaws, a flatter foot, and a more attenuated frame.
— from Ancient Egypt by George Rawlinson

His Preface is altogether admirable; and his Translation perhaps almost as good as the French Language will allow; which is just as fit for an Epic Poem, as an ambling Nag is for a War-Horse.
— from The Preface to the Aeneis of Virgil (1718) by Joseph Trapp

Don't you see we'd all be jugged and fined for assisting a criminal over the border?
— from The Celebrity, Volume 03 by Winston Churchill

[Pg 309] On the 14th the 2/4th Londons moved to a fresh position on the east side of the Yser Canal, and for four nights following, the whole Battalion was engaged in the desperate task of laying a duckboard track of double width in front of St Julien, as far forward as possible in the direction of the enemy positions, with the object of providing a means of communication in the forward area, and of reinforcing or relieving the advanced troops after the assault should have been delivered.
— from The War History of the 4th Battalion, the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1914-1919 by F. Clive Grimwade

We laid in a good supply of wood, and then Jim and Frank found a lot of cannel coal over on the sand bar, and all day they have been loading up the Desplaines and our boat with it.
— from The Houseboat Book: The Log of a Cruise from Chicago to New Orleans by W. F. (William Francis) Waugh

The delicate lines of the upper bridge were drawn in sepia against crimson-gilt; for an instant the cupola of the Clarendon became jasper, and far, far above floated in the azure a cloud of pink jeweller's cotton.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

This transaction took [ 204 ] place on the 5th of February 1597, in the presence of Señor Martinez, a Jesuit Bishop, many other Jesuits and Franciscan friars, and the Spaniards lately arrived in that ship, and who returned to Manila, after suffering many hardships, and certified what they had witnessed on this occasion.
— from An Historical View of the Philippine Islands, Vol 1 (of 2) Exhibiting their discovery, population, language, government, manners, customs, productions and commerce. by Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga

I think it's an intoxicating thing, just at first, for a girl to be really independent.
— from The Bacillus of Beauty: A Romance of To-day by Harriet Stark

It was, however, suggested by one of them that the paper should be handed to the presiding officer, without any statement from the tellers except that the return was informal; that he consented to this arrangement under the firm conviction that Mr. Jefferson would announce the nature of the informality from the chair; but, to his utmost surprise, he (Mr. Jefferson) rapidly declared that the votes of Georgia were four for Thomas Jefferson and four for Aaron Burr, without noticing their informality, and in a hurried manner put them aside, and then broke the seals and handed to the tellers the package from the next state.
— from Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete by Aaron Burr

His friends gave John a farewell feast and John thanked them, acknowledging the obligations which each owes to those he meets in social intercourse.
— from The Growth of a Soul by August Strindberg