If you will give me an obligation of five hundred pounds, to be paid six months after your marriage, I will put you in a method of carrying her in spite of all opposition.”
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

When the king sits to consult upon civil matters of consequence, he is shut up in a kind of box opposite to the head of the council table.
— from Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5) In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 by James Bruce

The points motor must, of course, have its separate connections with the "central station."
— from Things To Make by Archibald Williams

Moreover our coachman, having in sight a coach called the "High-Flyer," felt impelled to keep up with that vehicle, and so lashed the horses that we kept close to it all the while.
— from Audubon and His Journals, Volume 1 (of 2) by John James Audubon

I ascribe these illuminating flashes to Falstaff, and not to Shakespeare, for no imagination in the world has yet accomplished such a miracle; as a miracle of representment Falstaff is astonishing enough, as a miracle of creation he is simply unthinkable.
— from The Man Shakespeare and His Tragic Life Story by Frank Harris

Time were even as even the rainiest clime, Life were even as even this lapsing shore, 17 Might not aught outlive their trustless prime: Vainly fear would wail or hope implore, Vainly grief revile or love adore Seasons clothed in sunshine, rain, or rime Now for me one comfort held in store Stands a sea-mark in the tides of time.
— from A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne

That the reader, however, may be enabled to form some opinion of a performance, which—by an error or caprice of judgment, unexampled, perhaps, in the annals of literature—its author, for a time, preferred to the sublime musings of Childe Harold, I shall here select a few such passages from the Paraphrase as may seem calculated to give an idea as well of its merits as its defects.
— from Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 2 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore

Among men of conscience his influence secretly grew.
— from The Story of Magellan and The Discovery of the Philippines by Hezekiah Butterworth

The rude manner of cultivation here is sufficient to display the intrinsic goodness of the soil; for they just sprinkle with seed the spot marked out for the plough, then make the superficial furrows, and obtain most abundant crops.
— from A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809 In Which is Included, Some Account of the Proceedings of His Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart. K. C. to the Court of Persia by James Justinian Morier

"'Why, some of the Proudfits must of come home,' I says out loud.
— from Mothers to Men by Zona Gale