They have a naturalness, a spontaneity, at times a flash of real humor, which are lacking in her later novels; and they show a rapid development of literary power which reaches a climax in Silas Marner .
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

In the States of New England the legislative authority embraces more subjects than it does in France; the legislator penetrates to the very core of the administration; the law descends to the most minute details; the same enactment prescribes the principle and the method of its application, and thus imposes a multitude of strict and rigorously defined obligations on the secondary functionaries of the State.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

Then there was such a ramming down of the contents of enormous guns on the battery, with instruments like magnified mops; such a preparation before they were let off, and such an awful noise when they did go, that the air resounded with the screams of ladies.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Thus far back in the mire and midnight of human ignorance, and amid the clouds of mental darkness, while man dwelt upon the animal plane, and was governed by his brutal feelings, and "blood for blood" was the requisition for human offenses, originated the bloody, savage and revolting doctrine of the atonement.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

Egano hearing this, answered, 'Certes, needs must I go see,' and rising, donned one of the lady's gowns, as best he knew in the dark; then, covering his head with a veil, he betook himself to the garden and proceeded to 347 await Anichino at the foot of the pine.
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

Thereupon the dove flew out at the door, and she followed him, and at every seventh step a red drop of blood and a little white feather fell down and showed her the way.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

I presume, therefore, that his mind was naturally furnished with virtuous dispositions, and that he was not so much versed in foreign sciences as in the severe and rigid discipline of the ancient Sabines, than which class none was in former times more strict.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

The word “stoop,” sometimes written “stoup” (Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,” Book I. Canto XI. 18), and “swoop” ( Macbeth , “at one fell swoop”), signifies a rapid descent on the “quarry.”
— from The Ornithology of Shakespeare Critically examined, explained and illustrated by James Edmund Harting

He appeared to have no specific ailment; but there was a slow and remarkable decline of flesh and strength, and of the energy of all the functions,—what his mother very aptly termed ‘a gradual blight.’
— from Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen

Just now the fireworks of sophistry and rhetoric drown out the familiar tune and what is heard is the buzz-saw of political machinery.
— from Psycho-Phone Messages by Francis Grierson

[2] Such a retreat does our Redeemer afford to those who are fainting under the labours and discouragements of this wearisome life (Isa. 1–4, Jer. xxxi. 25).
— from The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Volume 15 (of 32) The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Volume I by Alfred Tucker

Then, as he clenched his hands and opened them, to feel if his sinews were limber, the muscles played beneath his skin, as ripples do over the face of a pool, when the wind ruffles its surface.
— from With Force and Arms: A Tale of Love and Salem Witchcraft by Howard Roger Garis

Now my good landlord never troubled himself about these domestic matters; but he was very clever at standing on the outer steps of his door, smoking cigars; and, indeed, would stay very willingly there all day—at least, until he heard his wife's voice, upon which he would make a precipitate retreat to a neighbouring café, where he would drink eau sucreé and rattle dominoes on a marble table till dinner-time.
— from Claret and Olives, from the Garonne to the Rhone Notes, social, picturesque, and legendary, by the way. by Angus B. (Angus Bethune) Reach

Suddenly, as I looked down, I heard a click like that of a gate-latch, and a second later I saw, projecting from one of the fantastic patterns of shade, a round disk of shining surface.
— from The Blue Wall A Story of Strangeness and Struggle by Richard Washburn Child

She wore a cross over her bosom, emeralds set in silver; a rosary, dangling on her wrist, told how her prayers kept alternate rhythm with her fingers.
— from Love Among the Ruins by Warwick Deeping