After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I was in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance; for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by wild beasts; and that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Snowdrop did not dream of any mischief; so she stood before the old woman; but she set to work so nimbly, and pulled the lace so tight, that Snowdrop’s breath was stopped, and she fell down as if she were dead.
— from Grimms' Fairy Tales by Wilhelm Grimm

Several times she listened at the door, and it seemed to her that his mutterings were louder than usual and that they turned him over oftener.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

the youthful age of Gargantua. IMG IMAGE END Gargantua, from three years upwards unto five, was brought up and instructed in all convenient discipline by the commandment of his father; and spent that time like the other little children of the country, that is, in drinking, eating, and sleeping: in eating, sleeping, and drinking: and in sleeping, drinking, and eating.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

The original species of our genus were supposed to resemble each other in unequal degrees, as is so generally the case in nature; species (A) being more nearly related to B, C, and D than to the other species; and species (I) more to G, H, K, L, than to the others.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

But if I publish to the rest of the world your most distinguished achievements, I shall perhaps avoid that blunder and not lay myself open to criticism.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian

'Thou warn'st me I have done amiss,— I should have earlier looked to this; I lost it in this bustling day.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

In a few minutes after, I heard the creaking of my door, as if some one endeavoured to open it softly.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

In all cases his face was pale and distressed, and in some he gesticulated towards the dreamer.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Even since the insulation of Britain a great many new plants and animals have been added to our population, both by human design and in several other casual fashions.
— from Falling in Love; With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Grant Allen

N. Y. Sun : "Distinctly an interesting story—one of the sort that the reader will not lay down before he goes to bed."
— from That Affair at Elizabeth by Burton Egbert Stevenson

Every line and rope's end was coiled down snugly, and every trace of shore litter had been cleared from the white decks as if she had been a week at least at sea, though we knew, from her course, that she could not be more than a few hours out from the Norway coast.
— from A Sea Queen's Sailing by Charles W. (Charles Watts) Whistler

The one just passed by me and struck the wall, the other, by bending my head, passed just over me: yet dangerous as it seems in such circumstances to sleep on the roof, the suffocating heat of the rooms is insupportable.
— from Journal of a Residence at Bagdad During the Years 1830 and 1831 by Anthony Norris Groves

A cognate subject is [xiii] that of old dates and inscriptions, suggestive as they are of the former ownership of property, of changes in the names of streets, sometimes even giving us glimpses of family history; as in the inscription to Denzil Lord Holles.
— from London Signs and Inscriptions by Philip Norman

“I quite agree with you, dear, and it shocks me to see into what a state of moral blindness poor Henry has plunged.”
— from The New Mistress: A Tale by George Manville Fenn

We were in the midst of a most genial crack when came a faint rap at the door, and in steps the goodman, as solemn as a thunder-cloud, in spite of the wan smile he fixed upon his countenance.
— from John Splendid: The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Neil Munro

I will obey to the death, and if success can be earned we will earn it.
— from The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror by George Chetwynd Griffith