The way I read a letter 's this: 'T is first I lock the door, And push it with my fingers next, For transport it be sure.
— from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete by Emily Dickinson

After this the Empress went and talked sociably (for an Empress) with various ladies around the circle; several gentlemen entered into a disjointed general conversation with the Emperor; the Dukes and Princes, Admirals and Maids of Honor dropped into free-and-easy chat with first one and then another of our party, and whoever chose stepped forward and spoke with the modest little Grand Duchess Marie, the Czar’s daughter.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

two days are past, Two days, as we compute the days of Heaven, Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame These disobedient: Sore hath been their fight, As likeliest was, when two such foes met armed; For to themselves I left them; and thou knowest, Equal in their creation they were formed, Save what sin hath impaired; which yet hath wrought Insensibly, for I suspend their doom; Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last Endless, and no solution will be found: War wearied hath performed what war can do, And to disordered rage let loose the reins With mountains, as with weapons, armed; which makes Wild work in Heaven, and dangerous to the main.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton

"Thus left behind, even in the last despair I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

The writers, who suppose that he died in ignorance of the ingratitude and ambition of Maximin, affirm, that, after taking a frugal repast in the sight of the army, he retired to sleep, and that, about the seventh hour of the day, a part of his own guards broke into the imperial tent, and, with many wounds, assassinated their virtuous and unsuspecting prince.
— 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

First she inquired for the lighter kinds of employment, and, as acceptance in any variety of these grew hopeless, applied next for the less light, till, beginning with the dairy and poultry tendance that she liked best, she ended with the heavy and course pursuits which she liked least—work on arable land: work of such roughness, indeed, as she would never have deliberately voluteered for.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy

Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing.
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. With a Proem by Austin Dobson by Lewis Carroll

47 These various branches of trade were monopolized by the diligence and power of the Genoese.
— 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

You’d teach Dante and Petrarch, Distance Cleopatra’s Mark.
— from The Lover's Baedeker and Guide to Arcady by Carolyn Wells

The detective and Passepartout met often on deck after this interview, though Fix was reserved, and did not attempt to induce his companion to divulge any more facts concerning Mr. Fogg.
— from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

It can hardly be that at his advanced age he expected to derive any personal good from either of these trees, but he was very fond of nuts, eating great quantities for dessert, and the liking inclined him to grow trees that produced them.
— from George Washington: Farmer Being an Account of His Home Life and Agricultural Activities by Paul Leland Haworth

The remaining delegates, called "the rump" by their Democratic adversaries, proceeded to ballot for a candidate for President, and voted fifty-seven times without effecting a nomination.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete by Abraham Lincoln

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: NA% industry: NA% services: NA% Population below poverty line: NA% Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA% highest 10%: NA% Inflation rate (consumer prices): NA% Labor force: 30,540 (January 1994) Unemployment rate: 3.1% (1998) Budget: revenues: $518 million expenditures: $531 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1995) Industries: tourism, construction, small-scale industrial and consumer products Industrial production growth rate: NA% Electricity - consumption: NA kWh Electricity - imports: NA kWh note: electricity supplied by France (1999) Agriculture - products: none Exports: $NA; full customs integration with France, which collects and rebates Monegasque trade duties; also participates in EU market system through customs union with France Imports: $NA; full customs integration with France, which collects and rebates Monegasque trade duties; also participates in EU market system through customs union with France Debt - external: $NA Economic aid - recipient: $NA Currency: euro (EUR); French franc (FRF) Currency code: EUR; FRF Exchange rates: euros per US dollar - 1.1324 (January 2002), 1.1175 (2001), 1.0854 (2000), 0.9386 (1999); French francs per US dollar - 5.8995 (1998), 5.8367 (1997) Fiscal year: calendar year Communications Monaco Telephones - main lines in use: 31,027 (1995) Telephones - mobile cellular: NA Telephone system: general assessment: modern automatic telephone system domestic: NA international: no satellite earth stations; connected by cable into the French communications system Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM NA, shortwave 8 (1998) Radios: 34,000 (1997) Television broadcast stations: 5 (1998) Televisions: 25,000 (1997)
— from The 2002 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

The cliff-wall of Lundy stood out blacker and blacker every moment against the gay western sky; greens, greys, and purples, dyeing together into one deep rich monotone, for which our narrow colour-vocabulary has no word; and threw a long cold shadow towards us across the golden sea; suddenly above its dark ridge a wild wreath of low rack caught the rays of the setting sun, and flamed up like a volcano towards the dun and purple canopy of upper clouds.
— from Prose Idylls, New and Old by Charles Kingsley

The diamonds and pearls sat too still for play, so the electric light contented itself with the white teeth of Englishwomen as they yawned.
— from The Hosts of the Lord by Flora Annie Webster Steel

my tormented ear Less dreads a pillory than a pamphleteer; I've heard myself to death; and, plagu'd each hour, Shan't I return the vengeance in my power?
— from The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 by Edward Young

“The fellow only opened the door and put his arm in to hang the coat up.
— from 'Twixt Land & Sea: Tales by Joseph Conrad

They cast a few pieces of flesh to the dogs and [Pg 248] then retire.
— from The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe Being Sketches of the Domestic and Religious Rites and Ceremonies of the Siamese by Ernest Young