‘Tis, doubtless, very remote from the present practice; for there never was so abject and servile prostitution of offers: life, soul, devotion, adoration, vassal, slave, and I cannot tell what, as now; all which expressions are so commonly and so indifferently posted to and fro by every one and to every one, that when they would profess a greater and more respectful inclination upon more just occasions, they have not wherewithal to express it.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Then the boy went on down the street, but he did not whistle, and Ellen went back to the doorstep, and, looking about to be sure that none of the men in the sitting-room saw, pulled off one little shoe and drew forth a sprig of southernwood, or boy's-love, which was crushed under her foot.
— from The Portion of Labor by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

We missed ever and anon from our sides the forms of those we loved, and with whom we had held daily converse, but they are gone, and the stately pines of the southern part of our land sing a refrain over their graves.
— from The 125th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Attention Batallion! by Robert M. Rogers

He was about to turn and go out when, at the farthest end of the gloomy shop, a small primrose oblong of light seeped for a [20] little way along the floor and a door opened.
— from Mr. Wicker's Window by Carley Dawson

The next lot has also some patches of open land, so that altogether out of the four hundred acres there must be about a hundred clear of bush."
— from Maori and Settler: A Story of The New Zealand War by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty