And when, as he heaved and wriggled to and fro, in the agitation of his strange pleasure, it came into view, it had something of the air of a round fillet of veal, and like its owner, squab, and short in proportion to its breadth; but when he felt my hand there, he begged I would go on briskly with my jerking, or he should never arrive at the last stage of pleasure.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

Have you not happened, yourself, to notice the same peculiarity in certain people?...
— from A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov

Occupied with such thoughts as these, and a crowd of others all tending to the same point, I continued to pace the street for two long hours; at length the rain began to descend heavily, and then over-powered by fatigue though no less interested than I had been at first, I engaged the nearest coach and so got home.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

The British traveller is not a little struck, and in many instances disgusted, with a certain air of indifference in the manners of such persons in Canada, which is accompanied with a tone of equality and familiarity exceedingly unlike the limber and oily obsequiousness of tavern-keepers in England.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

The general aspect of the country reminded me closely of Scawfell Pass in Cumberland.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

Now this is called a city, and the society thereof a political society; for those who think that the principles of a political, a regal, a family, and a herile government are the same are mistaken, while they suppose that each of these differ in the numbers to whom their power extends, but not in their constitution: so that with them a herile government is one composed of a very few, a domestic of more, a civil and a regal of still more, as if there was no difference between a large family and a small city, or that a regal government and a political one are the same, only that in the one a single person is continually at the head of public affairs; in the other, that each member of the state has in his turn a share in the government, and is at one time a magistrate, at another a private person, according to the rules of political science.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

She soon found that we had many, that they varied widely, but had some points in common.
— from Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

His expression says plainly: "I can't face that just now."
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

From such a deliberate departure from the straight path I come back to the subject of the economy of accessories in Jane Austen's novels.
— from Jane Austen and Her Country-house Comedy by W. H. (William Henry) Helm

Keeping always within forty or fifty leagues of the American coast, the squadron prosecuted its course very happily, having always the advantage of the land and sea-breezes; whereas, if it had kept farther from land, it would infallibly have fallen in with the western trade-wind.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Robert Kerr

If similarly placed in circuit after the bridge has been fixed, a considerable deflection of the needle should result, such deflection being due to the current passing through the metallic bridge, which to be efficient ought to be the sole medium through which the circuit is completed.
— from Torpedoes and Torpedo Warfare Containing a Complete and Concise Account of the Rise and Progress of Submarine Warfare by Charles William Sleeman

I've been wanting to go for a long while, but the roads have been so poor I couldn't make it."
— from The Rover Boys on a Tour; or, Last Days at Brill College by Edward Stratemeyer

Across the "neutral ground," as the strip between the English and Spanish possessions is called, a line of sentry boxes extended, and red-coated British sentinels paced back and forth.
— from A Trip to the Orient: The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise by Robert Urie Jacob

The second plot is connected with Elise (2 syl. ), the miser's daughter, promised in marriage by the father to his friend Anselme (2 syl. );
— from Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

With bare walls and a stone pavement, it contained no other furniture than a number of benches, which stood here and there in haphazard fashion.
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Lourdes, Complete by Émile Zola