The sleeper believes himself transported into the land of the dead or else he converses with a dead companion.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

Thus some, with upturned nose, will altogether sniff and disdain Sansculottism; others will lean heartily on it; nay others again will lean what we call heartlessly on it: three sorts; each sort with a destiny corresponding.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

A lath-and-plaster partition had been run across the passage six feet from the end, with a door cunningly concealed in it.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

It was a disheartening circumstance, but a melancholy fact, that even these readers persisted in wondering.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Glancing back, they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark centre of energy, advancing on them at incredible speed, while from out the dust a faint "Poop-poop!" wailed like an uneasy animal in pain.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Sir William Dugdale thought that this was a romanticised version of a real combat which Guy fought with a Danish chief, A.C. 926.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

True, she still wore a doleful countenance, as might be expected of a woman who had lost all her lodgers, and whose manner of life had been suddenly revolutionized, but she had all her wits about her.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

What a dark cloud-break out of the morning redness of youth!
— from Titan: A Romance. v. 2 (of 2) by Jean Paul

Finish with a dry cloth.
— from The Automobile Storage Battery: Its Care And Repair by Otto A. Witte

He suffered no hint of his intentions to escape to the youth himself, however, till he had found the sort of person he wanted for his office; and Henry was indulging sanguine hopes, and preparing to tell his father all that had occurred, when Mr. Scriven dashed his expectations to the ground at once by informing him, with all decent civility, that in a week a new clerk would come to fill the place he had lately been occupying.
— from The Forgery; or, Best Intentions. by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

2. The same holds true of the unity of consciousness, of which we are directly convinced.
— from Naturalism and Religion by Rudolf Otto

We are daily complaining of the great decline of Wit among us, and would we take away the greatest, perhaps the only topic we have left?
— from History of English Humour, Vol. 2 by A. G. K. (Alfred Guy Kingan) L'Estrange

The fox replied, 'Your Majesty will please Excuse'--and here he took good care to sneeze;-- 'Afflicted with a dreadful cold, Your majesty need not be told: My sense of smell is mostly gone.' From danger thus withdrawn, He teaches us the while, That one, to gain the smile Of kings, must hold the middle place 'Twixt blunt rebuke and fulsome praise; And sometimes use with easy grace, The language of the Norman race.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

And there were always daring cruisers ready to attempt to run the blockade, taking any risk for the sake of the large reward in case of success.
— from Gibraltar by Henry M. (Henry Martyn) Field

Ellen took, however, as precious payment, Alice's look and kiss; and then, with a delicate consciousness that perhaps the brother and sister might like to be alone, she left the library.
— from The Wide, Wide World by Susan Warner

This expedition known as the Lewis and Clark, made in 1804-1806, brought to light much information relative to the West and demonstrated conclusively the feasibility of crossing overland as well as the resources of the country traversed.
— from The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad Its Projectors, Construction and History by William Francis Bailey

Mr. Loring was a distant connection of my father's and I went to him in behalf of some one else—" she hesitated.
— from The Key Note: A Novel by Clara Louise Burnham