I should be surprised if mysticism did not soon make some advance amongst a people solely engaged in promoting its own worldly welfare.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville

SYN: Detour, divergence, deviation, recreation, amusement, pastime, sport, enjoyment.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

“Papa!” said Eva, gently, laying her hand on his.
— from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

(ed. Migne) ‘Et eam quæ erat Laodicensium ideo præcipit Colossensibus legi, quia, licet perparva sit et in Canone non habeatur, aliquid tamen utilitatis habet’.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

At length, after many trials and much fatigue, on the 25th of April several bars of iron were forged, and transformed into tools, crowbars, pincers, pickaxes, spades, etc., which Pencroft and Neb declared to be real jewels.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

REALM was frequently written ream; and frequently (as the following passages shew), even when the former spelling was given, the L was not sounded; "Vpon the siluer bosome of the STREAME First gan faire Themis shake her amber locks, Whom all the Nimphs that waight on Neptunes REALME Attended from the hollowe of the rocks.
— from The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe

Austrey, Warwickshire Perpendicular window, Merton College Chapel, Oxford Tudor arch, vestry door, Adderbury Church, Oxon Perpendicular parapet, St. Erasmus’ Chapel, Westminster Abbey Perpendicular moulding, window, Christchurch, Oxford Diagram of a manor Ancient plan of Old Sarum
— from English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

The Conservative can appreciate the efforts of the Radical, for each is ennobled by the pursuit of the impossible; but the man of half measures and indeterminate aims, while contemning both, will find the reaction from violent change a more potent sentiment even than his disgust at corrupt immobility.
— from A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate by A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones) Greenidge

Englishmen are essentially domestic , and pictures small enough to hang in small houses, and illustrative of home life, suit their necessities, and appeal to their feelings far more strongly than vast canvases representing battles or sacred histories.
— from English Painters, with a Chapter on American Painters by H. J. (Harry John) Wilmot-Buxton

The blood, thus forcibly injected into the chambers of the heart, distends this combination of hollow muscles; till by the stimulus of distention they contract themselves; and, pushing forwards the blood into the arteries, exert sufficient force to overcome in less than a second of time the vis inertiæ, and perhaps some elasticity, of the very extensive ramifications of the two great systems of the aortal and pulmonary arteries.
— from Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. I by Erasmus Darwin

He loved her play so extravagantly and took such interest in all she did that the tie between himself and the doctor grew closer every day, though the latter never dared to say to him, “You, too, have you lost children?”
— from Ursula by Honoré de Balzac

The New Testament knows nothing of a purely spiritual existence hereafter, nothing of an abstract disembodied immortality.
— from Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors by James Freeman Clarke

I Towards the end of July there was some particularly splendid excitement for the newspaper-reading public.
— from If Winter Comes by A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth) Hutchinson

Those of the lower jaw worked inside those of the upper, like shears, and they were very handy for cutting the large chunks into pieces small enough to go down his throat.
— from Forest Neighbors: Life Stories of Wild Animals by William Davenport Hulbert

He looked upon his weapon himself with some pleasure, and guiding it with his hand to the inviting; slit, drew aside the lips, and lodged it (after some thrusts, which Polly seemed even to assist) about half way; but there it stuck, I suppose from its growing thickness: he draws it again, and just wetting it with spittle, re-enters, and with ease sheathed it now up to the hilt, at which Polly gave a deep sigh, which was quite another tone than one of pain; he thrusts, she heaves, at first gently, and in a regular cadence; but presently the transport began to be too violent to observe any order or measure; their motions were too rapid, their kisses too fierce' and fervent for nature to support such fury long: both seemed to me out of themselves: their eyes darted fires: "Oh!
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland