Edward at length retired, his mind agitated by a variety of new and conflicting feelings, which detained him from rest for some time, in that not unpleasing state of mind in which fancy takes the helm, and the soul rather drifts passively along with the rapid and confused tide of reflections, than exerts itself to encounter, systematize, or examine them.
— from Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since by Walter Scott

Edward at length retired, his mind agitated by a variety of new and conflicting feelings, which detained him from rest for some time, in that not unpleasing state of mind in which fancy takes the helm, and the soul rather drifts passively along with the rapid and confused tide of reflections than exerts itself to encounter, systematise, or examine them.
— from Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since by Walter Scott

The ten thousand trees beneath, and their ten million branches and twigs all completely clothed in crystal—while not the slightest breeze was stirring—presented a view of fairyland, such as flits across the vision in dreams, that the memory fain would cling to, but which is lost in the real and conflicting transactions of returning day.
— from Wild Western Scenes A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer are Particularly Described by J. B. (John Beauchamp) Jones

There are many other taverns in the town—the Shakespeare, a delightful resort, the Falcon, the Rose and Crown, the old Red Lion, and the Swan's Nest, being a few of them,—-but the Red Horse takes precedence of all its kindred, in the fascinating because suggestive attribute of antiquity.
— from Shakespeare's England by William Winter

What this evening offered him seemed to require a considerable touch of refining before it could reach acceptance.
— from On the Stairs by Henry Blake Fuller