Now there’s Morgan le Fay, as fresh and young as a Vassar pullet, to all appearances, and here is this old duke of the South Marches still slashing away with sword and lance at his time of life, after raising such a family as he has raised.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Has this obscure line any reference to prophecy?
— from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Edmund Spenser

When to these qualities are added the advantages of Spain's position and well-situated ports, the fact that she was first to occupy large and rich portions of the new worlds and long remained without a competitor, and that for a hundred years after the discovery of America she was the leading State in Europe, she might have been expected to take the foremost place among the sea powers.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

They from their airy path looked down On many a wood and many a town, On lake and river, brook and rill, City and realm and towering hill.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

The king then proceeded southwards himself along the coast, stopping at every district, and holding Things with the bondes; and in each Thing he ordered the Christian law to be read, together with the message of salvation thereunto belonging, and with which many ill customs and much heathenism were swept away at once among the common people: for the earls had kept well the old laws and rights of the country; but with respect to keeping Christianity, they had allowed every man to do as he liked.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

The two officers laughed at Rawdon's discomfiture.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

[1] torpedo ; the raia torpedo of Linnæus; a ray or skate.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius

Take of dried Citron, and Orange pills, Nutmegs, Cloves, Cinnamon, of each two ounces, the roots of Cypress, Orris, Florentine, Calamus Aromaticus, of each one ounce, Zedoary Galanga, Ginger, of each half an ounce, the tops of Lavender and Rosemary, of each two handfuls, the leaves of Bay, Marjoram, Bawm, Mints, Sage, Thyme, of each one handful, the flowers of white and Damask Roses fresh, of each half a handful, Rose-water four pounds, white Wine eight pounds, let all of them be bruised and infused twenty four hours, then distil them according to art.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

The Southern Coast of Africa runs in a Line of Latitude, the Northern on an Eastern Line, but both strait, with the fewest Inlets, Gulphs or Bays, of either of the four Continents; the only large and remarkable one, is that of Benin and Calabar , towards which the Currents of each Coast tend, and is strongest from the Southward, because more open to a larger Sea, whose rising it is (tho’ little and indiscernable at any Distance from the Land,) that gives rise to these Currents close in Shore, which are nothing but Tides altered and disturbed by the Make and Shape of Lands.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

The weeds on the bank are English in type, only larger and richer—as becomes the climate.
— from Prose Idylls, New and Old by Charles Kingsley

"The statesmen are talking of limiting armaments," remarked Bonticu.
— from The Sin of Monsieur Pettipon, and other humorous tales by Richard Edward Connell

The Nez Percés have one governor or principal chief, twelve subordinate chiefs of equal power, being the heads of the different villages or clans, with their five officers to execute all their lawful orders, which law they have printed in their own language, and read understandingly.
— from A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information by W. H. (William Henry) Gray

Apparently stimulated by this example the people of Miranda del Ebro, led by Pero Martínez, son of the precentor and by Pero Sánchez de Bañuelas, fell upon the Jews of their town, but King Pedro hastened thither and, as a deterrent example, boiled the one leader and roasted the other.
— from A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1 by Henry Charles Lea

The Chinese have their own laws and regulations; but the Manchoos have manufactured devilish enactments, so that our Chinese people cannot escape the meshes of their net, [8] nor can they tell how to dispose of their hands and feet,
— from Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume I) by Augustus F. Lindley

He journeyed on about a mile further to the village in which the owner lived, and, returning with him to the house, arrangements were completed, and the man undertook that one room at least should be ready for occupation the next day.
— from The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Hours of leisure which, rightly passed, bring pleasures that raise the tide of life and renew the powers of work, cannot be utilized: there is not vigour enough for enjoy
— from The Five Great Philosophies of Life by William De Witt Hyde

The feature of the treaties which met with the greatest opposition was the provision that the Cuyuses, Walla Wallas, and Umatillas should relinquish the whole of their own lands, and remove to a reservation in the Nez Perce country.
— from The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Volume 2 (of 2) by Hazard Stevens

This project was therefore relinquished for the time; but a number of the children of the principal ci-devant German nobles, who, by the Treaty of Luneville and Ratisbon, had become subjects of Bonaparte, were, by the advice of Talleyrand, offered places in French Prytanees, where the Emperor promised to take care of their future advancement.
— from Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud (Being secret letters from a gentleman at Paris to a nobleman in London) — Complete by Lewis Goldsmith

He will wonder how it was that Turner, finishing in this exquisite way, and giving truths by the thousand, where other painters gave only one or two, yet, of all painters, seemed to obtain least acknowledgeable resemblance to nature, so that the world cried out upon him for a madman, at the moment when he was giving exactly the highest and most consummate truth that had ever been seen in landscape.
— from Modern Painters, Volume 3 (of 5) by John Ruskin