This day my hand thy tender age shall shield, And crown with honours of the conquer’d field: Thou, when thy riper years shall send thee forth To toils of war, be mindful of my worth; Assert thy birthright, and in arms be known, For Hector’s nephew, and Aeneas’ son.”
— from The Aeneid by Virgil

Some time afterward a French deserter seeking an asylum among the Cherokee, having made his way to the Great Island town, on the Tennessee, just below the mouth of Tellico river, was surprised to find there some of the same Natchez whom he had formerly driven as slaves.
— from Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology by James Mooney

Thinking it was a synagogue he entered, and was surprised to find that it was a Christian place of worship, where the prayers were said [335] in Hebrew.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

The policemen in the district all belonged to the league, and instead of suppressing the fights, they sold tickets for them.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

If we were able to go back to the elements of states, and to examine the oldest monuments of their history, I doubt not that we should discover the primal cause of the prejudices, the habits, the ruling passions, and, in short, of all that constitutes what is called the national character; we should then find the explanation of certain customs which now seem at variance with the prevailing manners; of such laws as conflict with established principles; and of such incoherent opinions as are here and there to be met with in society, like those fragments of broken chains which we sometimes see hanging from the vault of an edifice, and supporting nothing.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville

High on his ample back in haste Raghu's heroic sons he placed, And turned with rapid steps to find The sovereign of the Vánar kind.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

My eyes then fell, as I called to mind the circumstances of a former night, to the spot beneath the glare of the censer where I had seen the faint traces of the shadow.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Hence, though under nature it must generally be left doubtful, what cases are reversions to an anciently existing character, and what are new but analogous variations, yet we ought, on my theory, sometimes to find the varying offspring of a species assuming characters (either from reversion or from analogous variation) which already occur in some other members of the same group.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

Three of his men were out herding the pigs in one place or another, and he had sent the fourth to town with a boar that he had been forced to send the suitors that they might sacrifice it and have their fill of meat.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

The summer after (A.D. 1138) Magnus and Sigurd sailed together from the south with seven ships, and came unexpectedly in the night to Lister, where they laid their ships on the land.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

He raised his whistle, as the word he said, And blew; another answer'd to the call, And rushing in disorderly, though led, And arm'd from boot to turban, one and all, Some twenty of his train came, rank on rank; He gave the word,—'Arrest or slay the Frank.' Then, with a sudden movement, he withdrew His daughter; while compress'd within his clasp, 'Twixt her and Juan interposed the crew; In vain she struggled in her father's grasp— His arms were like a serpent's coil: then flew Upon their prey, as darts an angry asp, The file of pirates; save the foremost, who Had fallen, with his right shoulder half cut through.
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

This is of course a very superficial view, so far as the interest England seems to feel toward Tibet is concerned; for the Tibetan policy of that country, in my own humble
— from Three Years in Tibet by Ekai Kawaguchi

And whatsoever city thy servants shall enter, and the people of that city receive not the testimony of thy servants, and thy servants warn them to save themselves from this untoward generation, let it be upon that city according to that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of thy prophets; but deliver thou, O Jehovah, we beseech thee, thy servants from their hands, and cleanse them from their blood.
— from The Women of Mormondom by Edward W. (Edward William) Tullidge

The shrieks and cries of the wounded rang through the air, for they were so completely taken by surprise that for the time they forgot their usual stoicism, and gave way to the impulse of human nature to cry out with pain.
— from Snow Shoes and Canoes Or, The Early Days of a Fur-Trader in the Hudson Bay Territory by William Henry Giles Kingston

her lips; but in truth her heart seemeth too full to need more filling.
— from Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth by Lucy Aikin

His plan was not adopted; it was too simple and straightforward, even if it had any other merits, to meet the approval of an assembly intent only upon getting out of immediate embarrassment by means which might save them future trouble on the stump.
— from Abraham Lincoln: a History — Volume 01 by John G. (John George) Nicolay

I ask little of thee, Joseph, the children I'll forgo, but do thou separate thyself from these sectaries during my lifetime.
— from The Brook Kerith: A Syrian story by George Moore

In feeding ferrets for the purpose of Rat-catching, never do so before going out with them; I think it is quite sufficient to feed them every 24 hours.
— from Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher After 25 Years' Experience by Ike Matthews