The Phrygian shepherd presenting to Venus the prize of beauty, the apple of discord.
— 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

It is said, and it may be read in certain records of old painters, that while Cimabue was painting the said panel in certain gardens close to the Porta S. Pietro, there passed through Florence King Charles the Elder of Anjou, and that, among the many signs of welcome made to him by the men of [Pg 8] this city, they brought him to see Cimabue's panel; whereupon, for the reason that it had not yet been seen by anyone, in the showing it to the King there flocked together to it all the men and all the women of Florence, with the utmost rejoicing and in the greatest crowd in the world.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

Having raised it to his lips, with a hearty wish of a merry Christmas to all present, he sent it brimming round the board, for every one to follow his example, according to the primitive style, pronouncing it “the ancient fountain of good feeling, where all hearts met together.”
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

‘You shall have this presently,’ said Pott, looking up, pale with rage, and quivering in his speech, from the same cause.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

It is not necessary that the sister at the post should perceive your presence.” “Reverend Mother?” “What, Father Fauvent?” “Has the doctor for the dead paid his visit?” “He will pay it at four o’clock to-day.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The poet, says Plato, seated upon the muses tripod, pours out with fury whatever comes into his mouth, like the pipe of a fountain, without considering and weighing it; and things escape him of various colours, of contrary substance, and with an irregular torrent.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

And as for me, all that I think about in this plodding sad pilgrimage, this pathetic drift between the eternities, is to look out and humbly live a pure and high and blameless life, and save that one microscopic atom in me that is truly me : the rest may land in Sheol and welcome for all I care.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Perhaps you think us a company of selfish Hedonists, wholly given up to pleasurable sensations, poor weak copies of our Pagan Renaissance predecessors on the self-same spot?
— from Lamia's Winter-Quarters by Alfred Austin

By the middle of July, the fetid drinking water was so reduced that the crew was put on half allowance; but on the sleepy, fog-blanketed swell of the Pacific slipping past Bering's wearied eyes, there were so many signs of land—birds, driftwood, seaweed—that the commander ordered the ship hove to each night for fear of grounding.
— from Vikings of the Pacific The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward by Agnes C. Laut

The 'Popular Sovereignty' party, or Douglas Democracy, said: The people shall do what they choose about this matter.
— from The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various