I began by going through the opening song of this scene with him; but, after I had done my utmost to make him understand how I wanted it done, I was surprised to find how very difficult this particular rendering of the music appeared to him.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

The aid of the Jewish physicians was not the less eagerly sought after, though a general belief prevailed among the Christians, that the Jewish Rabbins were deeply acquainted with the occult sciences, and particularly with the cabalistical art, which had its name and origin in the studies of the sages of Israel.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the University, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops.
— 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

Two pursuivants, whom tabarts deck, With silver scutcheon round their neck, Stood on the steps of stone, By which you reach the donjon gate, And there, with herald pomp and state, They hailed Lord Marmion: They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye, Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye, Of Tamworth tower and town; And he, their courtesy to requite, Gave them a chain of twelve marks’ weight, All as he lighted down.
— from Marmion: A Tale Of Flodden Field by Walter Scott

There are many conceptual systems of this sort; and the sense manifold is also such a system.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James

And thenceforward all summer in the sound of the sea, And at night under the full of the moon in calmer weather, Over the hoarse surging of the sea, Or flitting from brier to brier by day, I saw, I heard at intervals the remaining one, the he-bird, The solitary guest from Alabama. Blow!
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Traversing a drift, we came to the Spanish line, passed five sets of timbers still uninjured, and found the earthquake.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

(ii) The changes which are taking place in the content of social life tremendously facilitate selection of the sort of activities which will intellectualize the play and work of the school.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

"Justice needs to remain still, otherwise the scales will move about and it won't be possible to make a just verdict."
— from The Trial by Franz Kafka

Down into the old part of the garden, where the great avenue of wild chestnut trees lures the wanderer to tread its shades, went the man who was in search of the Story; for here the wind had once murmured something to him of "Waldemar Daa and his Daughters."
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

Now, while this process is going on, methinks it would be more advisable to assist the benigner influence than to range thyself on the side of the sinister demon, and assure me that I am suffering a thousand inconveniences, of which I am beginning to be unconscious.
— from Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Volume 2 (of 2) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

He sat reading the football news in the last Sunday’s People ; but even this could not shut out the sound of her slow, insistent voice.
— from The Black Diamond by Francis Brett Young

I recognize the girl standing on the stage.
— from Warren Commission (13 of 26): Hearings Vol. XIII (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

Then at night there had been the same outspanning to see to; the feeding of the bullocks; the collection of wood and lighting of as big a fire as he could contrive, to cook his food, boil his coffee, and, finally, make up to scare off wild beasts.
— from Diamond Dyke The Lone Farm on the Veldt - Story of South African Adventure by George Manville Fenn

But I was tanning my sails yesterday, and there is some of the stuff left in the boiler; if you rub your hands and face with that you will do well."
— from In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

As it grew dark she observed that several of the women, and even some of the men, had made their escape.
— from Serapis — Volume 05 by Georg Ebers

The influence of the Missionaries has spread over the Skerang, Balau and Sibuyan tribes of Sea -Dyaks, and also among the Land -Dyaks near Kuching, the Capital, and among the Chinese of that town and the neighbouring pepper plantations.
— from British Borneo Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo by Treacher, W. H. (William Hood), Sir

I was never cut out for the tragic parts of life; but there are characters who smile on the stage and weep behind the scenes.
— from Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania by Bayard Taylor