In a few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy, whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation.
— 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

She jumped up from her chair with a movement of disgust and contempt.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hence the necessity of moulding and arranging all the particulars which are to compose the whole, in such a manner as to satisfy all the parties to the compact; and hence, also, an immense multiplication of difficulties and casualties in obtaining the collective assent to a final act.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton

Well, this'd be a fine place to be my whole life talking out with swearing Christians, in place of my old dogs and cat, and I stalking around, smoking my pipe and drinking my fill, and never a day's work but drawing a cork an odd time, or wiping a glass, or rinsing out a shiny tumbler for a decent man.
— from The Playboy of the Western World: A Comedy in Three Acts by J. M. (John Millington) Synge

Accordingly, with a sword in his hand, he stealthily entered the room in which the prince and the princess were to sleep that night, and ensconced himself under the bedstead, which was furnished with mattresses of down and canopied with mosquito curtains of the richest silk and gold lace.
— from Folk-Tales of Bengal by Lal Behari Day

Nature presents to me nothing which is not matter of doubt and concern.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal

He waited upon you, sir, this morning, alone, as a matter of delicacy and consideration.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Besides, having allowed the intellectual beliefs of his youth to grow faint, until his scepticism, as a finished 'man of the world,' had gradually penetrated them unawares, he held (or at least he had held for so long that he had fallen into the habit of saying) that the objects which we admire have no absolute value in themselves, that the whole thing is a matter of dates and castes, and consists in a series of fashions, the most vulgar of which are worth just as much as those which are regarded as the most refined.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

They are matters of duty and conscience, after all.
— from A World of Girls: The Story of a School by L. T. Meade

The name of Ty-Illtyd, or St. Illtyd’s house, is still known as Llanamllech, but it is applied to one of those monuments of Druidical antiquity called a cistvaen, erected upon an eminence named Maenest, at a short distance from the village.
— from The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin Through Wales by Cambrensis Giraldus

Removal of Imputations laid upon the ministers of Devon and Cornwall, p. 51, anno 1606.
— from Life of John Knox, Fifth Edition, Vol. 1 of 2 Containing Illustrations of the History of the Reformation in Scotland by Thomas M'Crie

Numerous priests, or medicine men, were always to be found in these Virginia tribes, and they were supposed to cure the sick by means of divinations and conjurations which were very noisy and grotesque.
— from Famous Indian Chiefs Their Battles, Treaties, Sieges, and Struggles with the Whites for the Possession of America by Charles H. L. (Charles Haven Ladd) Johnston

He had witnessed them often enough with his friend Diodoros, who never missed the procession to Eleusis, because, as he declared, the mysteries of Demeter alone could assure a man of the immortality of the soul.
— from A Thorny Path — Volume 01 by Georg Ebers

It is too expensive in the social economy, not in the matter of dollars and cents, but in the personal wear and tear they occasion one.
— from Letters of Peregrine Pickle by George P. (George Putnam) Upton

Go where they would, there was the same dull, damp, mephitic odour; dust and cobwebs, and mildew everywhere.
— from Christmas Penny Readings: Original Sketches for the Season by George Manville Fenn

After months of distress and confusion, he'd got straight again.
— from Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Having a center and a distance given to describe, make, or draw a circle.
— from The Way To Geometry by Petrus Ramus