Thus ships, though driven by a prosperous gale, Seem fix’d to sailors; those seem under sail That ride at anchor safe; and all admire, As they row by, to see the rocks retire.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

The ladies and courtiers were all most magnificently clad; so that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble a petticoat spread on the ground, embroidered with figures of gold and silver.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift

The ladies and courtiers were all most magnificently clad; so that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble a petticoat spread upon the ground, embroidered with figures of gold and silver.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

she can talk in a rational way, can Speak upon subjects that really are matters of mind and of thinking, Yet in perfection retain her simplicity; never, one moment, Never, however you urge it, however you tempt her, consents to Step from ideas and fancies and loving sensations to those vain Conscious understandings that vex the minds of man-kind.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 05, March, 1858 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

Gradually, the men began to straighten up, seeing the robot as an inert heap of metal rather than as a weird beast in its death throes.
— from Let There Be Light by H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe

The presence of ladies may have an effect in preventing the use of very intemperate language; and though it is maliciously said that some of the younger members speak more for the galleries than the house, and though some gallant individual may occasionally step up stairs to restore a truant handkerchief or boa to the fair owner, the distractions caused by their presence are very inconsiderable, and the arrangements for their comfort are a great reflection upon the miserable latticed hole to which lady listeners are condemned in the English House of Commons.
— from The Englishwoman in America by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

The ancient brown volumes stacked upon shelves that ranged almost from floor to ceiling were comfortably undisturbed.
— from The Way of an Eagle by Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell

Every other branch of education, as tending to change the direction of the public mind, from military affairs into more pacific employments, was sedulously discouraged, and the consequence is seen, in that melancholy ignorance which is distinguishable in those generations of the French people which have sprung up since the revolution, and frequently even amongst the old nobility.
— from Travels in France during the years 1814-15 Comprising a residence at Paris, during the stay of the allied armies, and at Aix, at the period of the landing of Bonaparte, in two volumes. by Patrick Fraser Tytler

They had verified the residence and employment of Lee Oswald in their city, so upon sending this report and the form they automatically became office of origin.
— from Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

These great and good men, animated by the subject they speak upon, seem to rise above all the former glorious exertions of their abilities.
— from Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies by John Dickinson

At last a row of what looked like matches streaked the horizon, and grew in size until something that rose and fell with the heave of the prairie sea became visible beneath.
— from The Mistress of Bonaventure by Harold Bindloss