He is, in fact, "trying it on the dog"—neither an unreasonable nor an unusual proceeding.
— from Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

Her day was divided between us; no amusement usurped a minute: she neglected her meals, her studies, and her play; and she was the fondest nurse that ever watched.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Here too let us note an unexpected apparition of Philippe d'Orleans at Court: his last at the Levee of any King.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

I was sure that Gilberte was coming to the Champs-Elysées, and I felt an elation which seemed merely the anticipation of a great happiness when—going into the drawing-room in the morning to kiss Mamma, who was already dressed to go out, the coils of her black hair elaborately built up, and her beautiful hands, plump and white, fragrant still with soap—I had been apprised, by seeing a column of dust standing by itself in the air above the piano, and by hearing a barrel-organ playing, beneath the window, En revenant de la revue , that the winter had received, until nightfall, an unexpected, radiant visit from a day of spring.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Luther's battle-voice, Dante's march-melody, all genuine things are with us, not against us.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

I might hint that the hair of our hero was worn short, combed smoothly over his forehead, and surmounted by a conical-shaped white flannel cap and tassels—that his pea-green jerkin was not after the fashion of those worn by the common class of restaurateurs at that day—that the sleeves were something fuller than the reigning costume permitted—that the cuffs were turned up, not as usual in that barbarous period, with cloth of the same quality and color as the garment, but faced in a more fanciful manner with the particolored velvet of Genoa—that his slippers were of a bright purple, curiously filigreed, and might have been manufactured in Japan, but for the exquisite pointing of the toes, and the brilliant tints of the binding and embroidery—that his breeches were of the yellow satin-like material called aimable—that his sky-blue cloak, resembling in form a dressing-wrapper, and richly bestudded all over with crimson devices, floated cavalierly upon his shoulders like a mist of the morning—and that his tout ensemble gave rise to the remarkable words of Benevenuta, the Improvisatrice of Florence, “that it was difficult to say whether Pierre Bon-Bon was indeed a bird of Paradise, or rather a very Paradise of perfection.”
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Only they That come to hear a merry bawdy play, A noise of targets, or to see a fellow In a long motley coat guarded with yellow, Will be deceiv'd; for, gentle hearers, know, To rank our chosen truth with such a show As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring To make that only true we now intend, Will leave us never an understanding friend.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

To the left, just across from this choice position, was, in 1833, Wragg & Co.'s establishment, where such matter-of-fact articles as the following could be procured: "Bending and unbending nails, as usual; wrought nails and spikes of all sizes [a change since 1810]: ox-traces and cable chains; tin; double and single sheet iron: sheet brass and copper; bar, hoop, bolt and rod iron of all sizes; shear, blister and cast steel; with every other article in the heavy line, together with a very complete assortment of shelf goods, cordage, oakum, tar, pitch, and rosin: also a few patent machines for shelling corn."
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

[951] Sit Osiris, sit Omphis, Nilus, Siris, sive quodcunque aliud ab Hierophantis usurpatum nomen, ad unum tandem Solem , antiquissimum Gentium numen, redeunt omnia.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Jacob Bryant

I told him frankly that the more I saw of Ireland the less I found I knew about it; so much of sterling good seemed blended with unsettled notions and unfixed opinions; such warmth of heart, such frank cordiality, with such traits of suspicion and distrust, that I could make nothing of them.
— from Jack Hinton: The Guardsman by Charles James Lever

She would not be ill, she told him, and she really could not get up now and unlock the door.
— from Ruth Erskine's Son by Pansy

Our people understood that their husbands had lately been killed by their enemies; but while they were performing this horrid ceremony, the men set about repairing the huts, with the utmost negligence and unconcern.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 by Robert Kerr

He was arranging some pistols and rifles on the table as we entered, and he looked up, nodded at us, and said— “Two more.
— from Sail Ho! A Boy at Sea by George Manville Fenn

“It is true, we are a more powerful race, but the bees are a unified nation, and unflinchingly loyal to their people and their state.
— from The Adventures of Maya the Bee by Waldemar Bonsels

He objected to the courier, and with some show of reason, since he was about to venture upon new and untried ground; but I thought he might as well learn how to take care of the courier now as later, therefore I enforced my point.
— from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain

Under the Rev. Dr. Bransby, the future poet spent a lustrum of his life neither unprofitably nor, apparently, ungenially.
— from The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe Including Essays on Poetry by Edgar Allan Poe

the usual number, although up to the time of his observations, it was the opinion of ornithologists that the birds deposited but two.
— from Nests and Eggs of Birds of the United States Illustrated by Thomas G. (Thomas George) Gentry

It appeared that the second night after the operation the old man commenced to feel a slight pricking pain in the eye that had been operated upon (not an uncommon symptom after “cataract” extraction, with no bad significance as a rule).
— from Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia An Account of an Englishwoman's Eight Years' Residence Amongst the Women of the East by A. Hume-Griffith

Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd (1126-98), best known as Averroes, taught the doctrine of the universal nature and unity of the human intellect, accounting for individual inequalities by a fantastic theory of stages of illumination.
— from A History of Spanish Literature by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly