I could see Persons dressed in glorious Habits with Garlands upon their Heads, passing among the Trees, lying down by the Side of Fountains, or resting on Beds of Flowers; and could hear a confused Harmony of singing Birds, falling Waters, human Voices, and musical Instruments.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

The officer rode out beyond our lines to Échkino.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

In happy Lombardy, at Milan, at Venice, the great, or rather only, business of life is pleasure.
— from On Love by Stendhal

* * * * * * * * After browsing among the stately ruins of Rome, of Baiae, of Pompeii, and after glancing down the long marble ranks of battered and nameless imperial heads that stretch down the corridors of the Vatican, one thing strikes me with a force it never had before: the unsubstantial, unlasting character of fame.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

V. The said John Bull obliges himself, his heirs and assigns, not to sell one rag of broad or coarse cloth to any gentleman within the neighbourhood of the said Nicholas, except in such quantities and such rates as the said Nicholas shall think fit.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot

E che non fammi, O sassi, O rivi, o belue, o Dii, questa mia vaga Non so, se ninfa, o magna, Non so, se donna, o Dea, Non so, se dolce o rea? Piangendo mi baciaste, E ridendo il negaste: In doglia hebbivi pin, In festa hebbivi
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Others rode on bicycles or on wooden horses.
— from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not of ravens only, but of any birds of their own genera.
— from Bird Neighbors An Introductory Acquaintance with One Hundred and Fifty Birds Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods About Our Homes by Neltje Blanchan

There is one ruby of Burma, one of two ruttees, without a flaw.
— from Miller's Mind training for children Book 1 (of 3) A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses by William Emer Miller

323 The cave, however, still continued to be the occasional resort of beasts of prey; for sparse remains of the reindeer, together with those of the bear and rhinoceros, were found in the stalagmite floor.
— from Cave Hunting Researches on the evidence of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe by William Boyd Dawkins

The eggs may be ornamented with a little dot of radishes or beetroot on the point.
— from The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

He openly appeared among the dramatists of his day as a reformer, and, poor as he was, refused to pander to popular tastes, whether those tastes took the direction of ribaldry, or blasphemy, or bombast.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867 A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics by Various

In doing so, I will suppose that the required variation is not of "rare occurrence," but of considerable amount, and that it appears afresh each year to about the same extent, thus giving the theory every possible advantage.
— from Darwinism (1889) An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications by Alfred Russel Wallace

Bushido, or the 'way of the Samurai,' has become almost an English word, so greatly has it impressed us with the principle of renunciation on behalf of the Country's welfare.
— from The Japanese Spirit by Yoshisaburo Okakura

But Jim’s book of the statistics of London, of Paris, and New York, will stand the Magna Charta of his nation, and around it will assemble the wiseacres of the tribe, descanting on and seeking for a solution of the blessings of civilization, as the passing pipe sends off its curling fumes, to future ages, over its astounding and marvellous estimates of civilized nations , of cities , of churches , of courts of justice , and gaols —of the tens of thousands of civilized people who are in it recorded (to their amazement) as blind , as deaf and dumb , and insane ; of gallows and guillotines , of massacres and robberies , the number of grog-shops and breweries , of coal-pits , of tread-mills and foundling hospitals , of poorhouses and paupers , of beggars and starvation , of brothels , of prisons for debtors , of rapes , of bigamy , of taxation , of game-laws , of Christianity , of drunkenness , of national debt and repudiation .
— from Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2) being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection by George Catlin

Assist me, then, with your imaginations; describe him to your own satisfaction, with his feelings all in one wild riot, with his confused senses struggling to picture himself as not having fallen to this state, endeavouring to draw one ray of brightness out of the dark gloom which environed him, and say for him, “God—the good, beneficent, all-seeing God—pity the poor prince and King!”
— from My Kalulu, Prince, King and Slave: A Story of Central Africa by Henry M. (Henry Morton) Stanley

As in the photograph, she wore no necklace, or bracelets, or rings, or brooches, or indeed ornaments of any description.
— from The Disappearing Eye by Fergus Hume