For, in the manner of prophecy, figurative and literal expressions are mingled, so that a serious mind may, by useful and salutary effort, reach the spiritual sense; but carnal sluggishness, or the slowness of an uneducated and undisciplined mind, rests in the superficial letter, and thinks there is nothing beneath to be looked for.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

I, to whom nature had denied the impromptu faculty; who, in public, was by nature a cypher; whose time of mental activity, even when alone, was not under the meridian sun; who needed the fresh silence of morning, or the recluse peace of evening, to win from the Creative Impulse one evidence of his presence, one proof of his force; I, with whom that Impulse was the most intractable, the most capricious, the most maddening of masters (him before me always excepted)—a deity which sometimes, under circumstances—apparently propitious, would not speak when questioned, would not hear when appealed to, would not, when sought, be found; but would stand, all cold, all indurated, all granite, a dark Baal with carven lips and blank eye-balls, and breast like the stone face of a tomb; and again, suddenly, at some turn, some sound, some long-trembling sob of the wind, at some rushing past of an unseen stream of electricity, the irrational demon would wake unsolicited, would stir strangely alive, would rush from its pedestal like a perturbed Dagon, calling to its votary for a sacrifice, whatever the hour—to its victim for some blood, or some breath, whatever the circumstance or scene—rousing its priest, treacherously promising vaticination, perhaps filling its temple with a strange hum of oracles, but sure to give half the significance to fateful winds, and grudging to the desperate listener even a miserable remnant—yielding it sordidly, as though each word had been a drop of the deathless ichor of its own dark veins.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Their liberal education, advantageous marriages, the secure dignity of their lives, and the first honors of the state with which they were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantine; and as those princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and fortune. 19 Note 18 ( return )
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The younger Cicero, who resembled his father in nothing but in name, whilst commanding in Asia, had several strangers one day at his table, and, amongst the rest, Cestius seated at the lower end, as men often intrude to the open tables of the great.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

(looking earnestly at me) never was likeness more striking!-the eyes-the face-the form-Oh, my child, my child!”
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney

Meanwhile, the windows of the Gondelaurier mansion remained lighted, even after midnight.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Was it Scepticism, uncertainty and inquiry whether there was an Unseen World, any Mystery of Life except a mad one;—doubt as to all this, or perhaps unbelief and flat denial?
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

Their liberal education, advantageous marriages, the secure dignity of their lives, and the first honors of the state with which they were invested, attest the fraternal affection of Constantine; and as those princes possessed a mild and grateful disposition, they submitted without reluctance to the superiority of his genius and fortune.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

But, to conclude my lang epistle, As my auld pen's worn to the gristle, Twa lines frae you wad gar me fissle, Who am, most fervent, While I can either sing or whistle, Your friend and servant.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

“Well, we’re going to miss you an awful lot, Emily and me.
— from Anne of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Thus neon, on account of its exceedingly small resistance to the passage of electric discharges, is a promising substance for filling glow lamps; especially as means have been found of correcting the glaring red color of the light which characterized the original neon lamps.
— from Meteorology: The Science of the Atmosphere by Charles Fitzhugh Talman

The volume from which these last extracts are made, is entitled Lettres Parisiennes .
— from Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445 Volume 18, New Series, July 10, 1852 by Various

p. 50 Chapter IV CHARACTERS IN THE MICROCOSM Mrs. Craigie has recently protested against the metropolitan fable that London enjoys a monopoly of culture, and has reminded us that in the provinces may be found a great part of the intellectual energy of the nation.
— from Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic by James Douglas

They literally defend 212 themselves to the last extremity; a Montenegrin never craves for mercy; and whenever one of them is severely wounded, and it is impossible to save him from the enemy, his own comrades cut off his head.
— from Rambles in Istria, Dalmatia and Montenegro by R. H. R.

Undine blushed, and looked embarrassed, and Marjorie hastened to explain.
— from The Girl from Arizona by Nina Rhoades

Therefore they must doubtless have been engaged in various domestic duties and exercises; that those of the less experienced ages might be instructed by them and trained to virtue.
— from Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation by Martin Luther

As the afternoon began to pass Jack looked earnestly ahead many times.
— from Motor Boat Boys Down the Danube; or, Four Chums Abroad by Louis Arundel

'There, now you look exactly as my brother used to do when he knelt at my mother's knee, and she taught him to lisp his evening prayer,' exclaimed Henrich and his eyes glistened with emotion, as home, and all its loved associations, rushed into his mind.
— from The Pilgrims of New England A Tale of the Early American Settlers by Mrs. (Annie) Webb-Peploe