The convertis pretended to have been impressed by the exhortations of some excellent preacher, and made a public profession of faith; they afterwards stationed themselves at church doors, as recently converted Catholics, and in this way received liberal contributions.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

("Wobbler," "snivelling puppy," and "mumchancer" are, it seems, among the ordinary small change of Mr. Lidgett's scholastic commerce.)
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

It is true that this pamphlet, which teems with figures, has been prompted, as many another "defence," by the error that Anti-Semitism can be refuted by reasonable arguments.
— from The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl

It chanced the maidens, bright and gay As lightning-flashes on a day Of rain time, to the garden went With song and play and merriment, And there in gay attire they strayed, And danced, and laughed, and sang, and played.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

I dare say that, on a comparison of our opinions, they would be found as much alike as they have been used to be: to the point—I consider Crawford's proposals as most advantageous and desirable, if you could return his affection.
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

June, '90 .—The——rejects and sends back my little poem, so I am now set out in the cold by every big magazine and publisher, and may as well understand and admit it—which is just as well, for I find I am palpably losing my sight and ratiocination.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

“Besides these, we have another messmate, who is a French chevalier, an odd sort of a man, a kind of Lazarillo de Tormes, a caricatura; he wears a long beard, pretends to be a great poet, and makes a d—-ed fracas with his verses.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

The same testimony gives Homer of the old men of Troy, that were spectators of that single combat between Paris and Menelaus at the Seian gate, when Helen stood in presence; they said all, the war was worthily prolonged and undertaken
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

It was upon a time intended that there should be a general muster of several troops in arms (and that is the most proper occasion of secret revenges, and there is no place where they can be executed with greater safety), and there were public and manifest appearances, that there was no safe coming for some, whose principal and necessary office it was to review them.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Although the Senate here in the main followed Bering's own proposition and made a triple expedition (an American, a Japanese, and an Arctic), it nevertheless betrayed a peculiar inclination to burden the chief of the expedition with tasks most remote from his own original plans.
— from Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait by Peter Lauridsen

Cheston to Piers and Maltby, April 3. Randal Oge to Fitzwilliam, April 7; Hill’s MacDonnells , pp.
— from Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 2 (of 3) by Richard Bagwell

I am ready to receive him, but do you know I think that my papa and mamma are not so fond of me as they ought to be.
— from Jane Sinclair; Or, The Fawn Of Springvale The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two by William Carleton

Professor Pearson thinks, as seems reasonable, that this series of figures indicates principally assortative mating, and shows that among the poor there is less choice, the selection of a husband or wife being more largely due to propinquity or some other more or less random factor.
— from Applied Eugenics by Roswell H. (Roswell Hill) Johnson

A little speculation on “what may be” comes naturally, without encouragement—comes inevitably in the form of images, when unknown persons are mentioned; and Mr. Grandcourt’s name raised in Mrs. Davilow’s mind first of all the picture of a handsome, accomplished, excellent young man whom she would be satisfied with as a husband for her daughter; but then came the further speculation—would Gwendolen be satisfied with him?
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

You may, perhaps, induce many potters to manufacture fissured pots, and many amateurs of clay to buy them; but the nation is, through the whole business so encouraged, rich by the addition to its wealth of so many potsherds,—and
— from The Queen of the Air: Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm by John Ruskin

There are two extremes, however, which we must carefully avoid: First, that it is a matter of total indifference what religious principles a man adopts and what form of worship he prefers.
— from The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, February, 1880 by Various

You are surprised, perhaps, at my anxiety; but by-and-bye you will understand it without difficulty, when I have explained to you how terribly interested I am in the fact of his journey being safely accomplished.
— from Letters of Franz Liszt -- Volume 1 from Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso by Franz Liszt