In Russia the small Asiatic cockroach has everywhere driven before it its great congener.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

Narcissa’s nature, tolerably mild, To make a wash, would hardly stew a child; Has even been proved to grant a lover’s prayer, And paid a tradesman once to make him stare; Gave alms at Easter, in a Christian trim, And made a widow happy, for a whim.
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope

He felt a desire to see them, and also a dread and abhorrence of them; 440 for a time he struggled and covered his eyes, but at length the desire got the better of him; and forcing them open, he ran up to the dead bodies, saying, Look, ye wretches, take your fill of the fair sight.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

Pictures like these, dear madam, to design, Asks no firm hand, and no unerring line; Some wandering touches, some reflected light, Some flying stroke alone can hit ’em right: For how should equal colours do the knack?
— from An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires by Alexander Pope

Miss Betsey, looking round the room, slowly and inquiringly, began on the other side, and carried her eyes on, like a Saracen’s Head in a Dutch clock, until they reached my mother.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

he mentally ejaculated; but his lips uttered no sound, and as though all his strength were centred in that internal emotion, he sighed and closed his eyes.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

He felt a desire to see them, and also a dread and abhorrence of them; for a time he struggled and covered his eyes, but at length the desire got the better of him; and forcing them open, he ran up to the dead bodies, saying, Look, ye wretches, take your fill of the fair sight.
— from The Republic by Plato

The horse remained standing as long as he could see him; then, knowing that his attempts to reach the near-by grass would be hopeless, he once more lay down on his side and closed his eyes.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

In a word, after a series of whippings, confinements, and scoldings, after compelling him either to eat flesh on Friday, or fast all day without any other food, Parson Dilman, out of sheer shame, gave him up, and confessed himself vanquished by the Catholic child.
— from The Cross and the Shamrock Or, How To Defend The Faith. An Irish-American Catholic Tale Of Real Life, Descriptive Of The Temptations, Sufferings, Trials, And Triumphs Of The Children Of St. Patrick In The Great Republic Of Washington. A Book For The Entertainment And Special Instructions Of The Catholic Male And Female Servants Of The United States. by Hugh Quigley

Such a creed has existed from the time of the Council of Nice, and is not likely ever to be abandoned by any Christian Church in any future age, although it may be modified and softened with the advance of knowledge.
— from Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3 part 2: Renaissance and Reformation by John Lord

As by degrees the streets filled with men, and women, and little children, how suspiciously and consciously his eyes glanced at all who passed by him, the greetings of the companions of former days were unreturned, or misunderstood, for Judas wondered how that any should speak to him !
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, October 1849 by Various

Uncle Remus smiled and closed his eyes with an air of disdain, caught from his old Mistress, the little boy's grandmother, long since dead.
— from Nights With Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris

Their repeated acclamations expressed their joy at beholding, after an absence of thirty-two years, the sacred person of their sovereign, and Constantius himself expressed, with some pleasantry, he affected surprise that the human race should thus suddenly be collected on the same spot.
— from History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2 by Edward Gibbon

He shuddered and closed his eyes; there she was, pitifully dead of a wound in the breast.
— from The Forest Lovers by Maurice Hewlett

She lay down on the sofa and closed her eyes.
— from The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 by Various

He gave vent to a stifled sigh, and closed his eyes, resigned to the fate that awaited him.
— from The Indian Scout: A Story of the Aztec City by Gustave Aimard