Again my feelings of pleasure expanded themselves to all around me; and if any man from Oxford or Cambridge, or from neither, had been announced to me in my unpretending cottage, I should have welcomed him with as sumptuous a reception as so poor a man could offer.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

The birds had sung so much all the morning, that they had, perhaps, by this time grown tired; the lazy cattle were asleep in the meadows; Sir Michael was still away on his morning's ramble; Miss Alicia had scampered off an hour before on her chestnut mare; the servants were all at dinner in the back part of the house; and my lady had strolled, book in hand, into the shadowy lime-walk; so the gray old building had never worn a more peaceful aspect than on that bright afternoon when George Talboys walked across the lawn to ring a sonorous peal at the sturdy, iron-bound oak door.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Madam Beritola, going up, like the rest, into the island and finding a remote and solitary place, addressed herself to make moan for her Arrighetto, all alone there.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Texas and the territory brought into the Union in consequence of annexation, were purchased with both blood and treasure; and Texas, with a domain greater than that of any European state except Russia, was permitted to retain as state property all the public lands within its borders.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

When he had eaten enough and was satisfied, the swineherd took the bowl from which he usually drank, filled it with wine, and gave it to Ulysses, who was pleased, and said as he took it in his hands, "My friend, who was this master of yours that bought you and paid for you, so rich and so powerful as you tell me?
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

o' working hours—builds a oven for 's wife to save her from going to the bakehouse, or scrats at his bit o' garden and makes two potatoes grow istead o' one, he's doin' more good, and he's just as near to God, as if he was running after some preacher and a-praying and a-groaning.”
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

We shall be heartily glad to see your short Face in Oxford : And since the Wisdom of our Legislature has been immortalized in your Speculations, and our personal Deformities in some sort by you recorded to all Posterity; we hold ourselves in Gratitude bound to receive with the highest Respect, all such Persons as for their extraordinary Merit you shall think fit, from Time to Time, to recommend unto the Board.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

The religious Acteon stood pale and motionless gazing at that chaste Diana, but his eyes glittered in their dark circles, untired of staring at those white and shapely arms and at that elegant neck and bust, while the small rosy feet that played in the water awoke in his starved being strange sensations and in his burning brain dreams of new ideas.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

Soon they reached a side path, and down this the little dog fairly flew, only to come back at once, whining and barking.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter

It was really before his God that Bulstrode was about to attempt such restitution as seemed possible: a great dread had seized his susceptible frame, and the scorching approach of shame wrought in him a new spiritual need.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Water ran from his clothes when he reached a slanted platform and seized a greasy wheel.
— from Lister's Great Adventure by Harold Bindloss

We feel, with you, the deepest regret at so painful an occurrence in the annals of our country.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

Fifteen days after conception, the head, and the most apparent features of the face, are distinguishable; the nose resembles a small prominent and perpendicular thread affixed to a line, which indicates the division of the lips.
— from Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c. by Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

As the area of competition broadened, so the guilds weakened, until, under Edward VI, being no longer able to defend themselves, they were ruthlessly and savagely plundered; and fifty years later the Court of King's Bench gravely held that a royal grant of a monopoly had always been bad at common law.
— from The Theory of Social Revolutions by Brooks Adams

Neither Minns nor his friend ever came back again, but for some time after, at Victoria Park, Minns, inciting an outraged populace to rise and sweep police and army from the earth, was able to point to an honorable scar on his own forehead, the proof and sign of a police bludgeoning at Tower Hill—or Trafalgar Square.
— from Tales of Mean Streets by Arthur Morrison

This book is remarkable for the variety of stories it contains and their characters, which include Continental immigrants, Central American soldiery, Gloucester fishermen, Mississippi roustabouts and steamboat people, American bluejackets, and newspaper correspondents.
— from Running Free by James B. (James Brendan) Connolly