It was not that he was in danger of legal punishment or of beggary: he was in danger only of seeing disclosed to the judgment of his neighbors and the mournful perception of his wife certain facts of his past life which would render him an object of scorn and an opprobrium of the religion with which he had diligently associated himself.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

"Yes, sir; does that astonish you?" "What astonishes me is to think that we shall be there the day after to-morrow.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

Sceptical Dilettantism, the curse of these ages, a curse which will not last forever, does indeed in this the highest province of human things, as in all provinces, make sad work; and our reverence for great men, all crippled, blinded, paralytic as it is, comes out in poor plight, hardly recognizable.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

He gave them rest to the land from ploughing and planting every seventh year, as he had prescribed to them to rest from working every seventh day; and ordered, that then what grew of its own accord out of the earth should in common belong to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that respect between their own countrymen and foreigners: and he ordained, that they should do the same after seven times seven years, which in all are fifty years; and that fiftieth year is called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves became such, though they were of the same stock, by transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

We soon discovered this apparition to be the mistress of the house.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

25 His dutiful address to the senate displayed the sentiments, or at least the language, of a Roman patriot: "When you elected one of your order, conscript fathers!
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

So down to the school, where Dr. Crumlum did me much honour by telling many what a present I had made to the school, shewing my Stephanus, in four volumes, cost me L4 10s.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The Donatists who were taken in arms, received, and they soon deserved, the same treatment which might have been shown to the wild beasts of the desert.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

"He sat down to the piano, and began to play, and so
— from L'Arrabiata and Other Tales by Paul Heyse

Although we have kept the word, its meaning has gradually changed until it has come to mean something difficult to define, a will-o’-the-wisp, which one tries vainly to grasp.
— from Worldly Ways & Byways by Eliot Gregory

Though I did not take my eyes off the store for two hours I saw no more of the Indians, and by this time it was so dark that I could no longer see them if they did come out.
— from Track's End Being the Narrative of Judson Pitcher's Strange Winter Spent There as Told by Himself and Edited by Hayden Carruth Including an Accurate Account of His Numerous Adventures, and the Facts Concerning His Several Surprising Escapes from Death Now First Printed in Full by Hayden Carruth

"Which, if they ain't so many Cainses this night, hit bain't their fault, as I sez to Miss Penny the moment I sees that pore lamb brought into the 'ouse just like 'e was struck down the same as a flower of the field that bloweth where hit listeth; and she sez to me—for me and Miss Penny was wishing at that blessed minute, like hit were providential—she sez—" "It is certainly very kind of you to take such an interest in a stranger," ruthlessly interrupted the doctor; "but may I inquire how my patient is getting along?"
— from The Copper Princess: A Story of Lake Superior Mines by Kirk Munroe

In all Kurfurst Courts, the French Ambassadors sing diligently to the tune Belleisle sets them; and Courts give ear, or will do, when the charmer himself arrives. Kur-Sachsen, as above hinted, was his most delicate operation, in the charming or trout-tickling way.
— from History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12 by Thomas Carlyle

152 MAY 30 BREAKFAST LUNCHEON Sliced peaches with cream Cantaloupe Fried eggs with chives Frogs' legs sauté à sec Dry toast Blood pudding, sauce Robert Coffee Mashed potatoes Escarole and chicory salad Apple turnover Demi tasse DINNER Consommé Venitienne Fillet of halibut, Lilloise Tournedos, Bayard Jets de houblons Potatoes
— from The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book by Victor Hirtzler

He ranged his soldiers upon the beach, and ordered them to make a general discharge, which was no sooner done, than we perceived a glimmering light upon the water, which was instantly succeeded by the sound of a gun.
— from Paul and Virginia from the French of J.B.H. de Saint Pierre by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre