There are many legends which report this strange phase of development, one of the finest being that of The Goban Saor, told by Mr. Kennedy.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

Her thoughts dwelt often on the message of the porter, and were employed in conjecturing the subject, that occasioned it, which she sometimes imagined concerned the fate of Madame Montoni; at others, that it related to some personal danger, which threatened herself.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe

Adj. indicating &c. v., indicative, indicatory; denotative, connotative; diacritical, representative, typical, symbolic, pantomimic, pathognomonic[obs3], symptomatic, characteristic, demonstrative, diagnostic, exponential, emblematic, armorial; individual &c. (special) 79.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

She was vaguely touched by the names and scenes amid which she moved, and had listened to Ned Silverton reading Theocritus by moonlight, as the yacht rounded the Sicilian promontories, with a thrill of the nerves that confirmed her belief in her intellectual superiority.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

He read Christine's note over and over again, smelling its perfume, recalling the sweet pictures of his childhood, and spent the rest of that tedious night journey in feverish dreams that began and ended with Christine Daae.
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

I conceived, however, that I held the distinguished situation I had obtained, however unworthily, rather like the champion of pugilism, 3 on the condition of being always ready to show proofs of my skill, than in the manner of the champion of chivalry, who performs his duties only on rare and solemn occasions.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

Some London houses have a melancholy little plot of ground behind them, usually fenced in by four high whitewashed walls, and frowned upon by stacks of chimneys: in which there withers on, from year to year, a crippled tree, that makes a show of putting forth a few leaves late in autumn when other trees shed theirs, and, drooping in the effort, lingers on, all crackled and smoke-dried, till the following season, when it repeats the same process, and perhaps, if the weather be particularly genial, even tempts some rheumatic sparrow to chirrup in its branches.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

It was reduced to six per cent.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

[88] On December 6, a mournful caravan set out from Cairo with the Bishop's remains, recalling the sad procession which returned to the Promised Land with the bones of Joseph.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

A person, who carries a message to a woman, which has a double meaning, or which relates to some past transactions, or which is unintelligible to other people, is called a go-between who acts the part of the wind.
— from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana Translated From the Sanscrit in Seven Parts With Preface, Introduction and Concluding Remarks by Vatsyayana

A friend of the family expresses it thus: “When one considers the repose, the self possession of her nature, the freedom from constraint and the spirituality of it, one might almost believe that she was not originally of this earth but perhaps a native of the moon, which seems to exercise more influence upon her than the earth .”
— from Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary Study by J. Sadger

Then ensued an uncomfortable silence, interrupted by the arrival of one of my men to say that the villagers had refused to sell provisions of any kind, although eggs, milk, and rice were to be had in plenty.
— from A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistán by Harry De Windt

The plan of St. Cyr was to demonstrate against the bridge of Molins de Rey, the strongest part of the Spanish position, with Chabran’s 4,000 men, while he himself crossed the fords lower down the Llobregat with the 14,000 bayonets of the other three divisions, and turned the right flank of the enemy.
— from A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 2, Jan.-Sep. 1809 From the Battle of Corunna to the End of the Talavera Campaign by Charles Oman

Roberts Vaux To Governor Coles Esteemed Friend :—My delay in the acknowledgment of the receipt of thy truly interesting letter of Jan'y 21, last, will not, I trust, be attributed to any want of respect and kindness, but to the real causes, which were, first, an unusual press of business relative to several public institutions, which at the season of the receipt of that communication demanded my attention; and secondly, to the expectation subsequently entertained here, that thy presence might be expected at Washington as successor in the Senate of the United States to N. Edwards, appointed on a foreign mission.
— from The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918 by Various

There is in truth no rising or meridian of the sun, but only in respect to several places: there is no right or left, no upper hand in nature; everything is little and everything is great according as it is diversely compared.
— from Cowley's Essays by Abraham Cowley

For the first few years the journey was made by rail to St. Paul, in the American State of Minnesota.
— from John Black, the Apostle of the Red River Or, How the Blue Banner Was Unfurled on Manitoba Prairies by George Bryce