From the auto-biography of Plumer a very curious and scarce production of 244 pages, the following extract is taken, which may serve to give some idea of the versatility of his genius.—"I had," says he, "some practice as a physician, and earned something with my pen, but for several years was obliged chiefly to follow various kinds of business accounted less honorable, viz:
— from A Pickle for the Knowing Ones by Timothy Dexter

I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

Now by this hand I gave it to a youth, A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk; A prating boy that begg'd it as a fee; I could not for my heart deny it him.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth, A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk; A prating boy that begg'd it as a fee; I could not for my heart deny it him.
— from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

But when they kisse one banke, and leaving this Never looke backe, but the next banke doe kisse, 35 Then are they purest; Change'is the nursery Of musicke, joy, life, and eternity.
— from The Poems of John Donne, Volume 1 (of 2) Edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts by John Donne

The case was not reported in the papers, and was therefore known only by a limited circle.
— from Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous by Sarah Knowles Bolton

The women wear white stockings with a pocket for the great toe, and "getas" formed of a sole of wood, perched on two high clogs of the same, and kept on by a leash.
— from Newfoundland to Cochin China By the Golden Wave, New Nippon, and the Forbidden City by Ethel Gwendoline Vincent

He was not perturbed to discover the seat usually reserved on the right of the king occupied by a lesser chief, and his own stool placed four seats down on the left.
— from Bosambo of the River by Edgar Wallace

It represented a sinister-looking brigand, stealing away with Two Keys in one hand and a spilt cap in the other, suddenly kicked over by a large-sized donkey, his mane and tail flying, head up, and an air of liberty about him generally, which probably shocked Antonelli's tool the censor's sense of the proprieties.
— from The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

But at the same instant he was knocked over by another little savage, who had sprung from I know not where, and who was so precisely like the first that one might have taken them for twin brothers.
— from Baudelaire: His Prose and Poetry by Charles Baudelaire

Most of these have reference to old local Pagan ceremonies in which the Kings once bore a leading part, but which were now strictly prohibited; others are of inter-Provincial significance, and others, again, are rules of personal conduct.
— from A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete by Thomas D'Arcy McGee

The flesh he dispersed over the land, commanding it to become different kinds of beasts and land-animals, and it obeyed his commands.
— from Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 by James Athearn Jones

This did not satisfy the hired man, who kept on betting, and losing until he had no money left.
— from My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands, Dictated in My Seventy-Fourth Year by George Francis Train

Calhoun added again, as unemotionally as before: "I left Dr. Lett unconscious in his laboratory, knocked out by a low-power blaster bolt.
— from The Hate Disease by Murray Leinster

Presently appeared a kind of barracoon, a large square of thick cane-work and thatch about eight feet high, the Fetish house of the "Jinkimba" or circumcised boys, who received us with unearthly yells.
— from Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir