In the first month after I was twenty-one years of age, I went into the woods, drove a team, and cut mill-logs.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

I shall devote myself for a time to the examination of the Roman Catholic dogmas, and to a careful study of the workings of their system: if I find it to be, as I half suspect it is, the one best calculated to ensure the doing of all things decently and in order, I shall embrace the tenets of Rome and probably take the veil.”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë

“Are the English expected by land, or do the Musketeers consider themselves superior officers?” “Monseigneur,” replied Athos, for amid the general fright he alone had preserved the noble calmness and coolness that never forsook him, “Monseigneur, the Musketeers, when they are not on duty, or when their duty is over, drink and play at dice, and they are certainly superior officers to their lackeys.”
— from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

"'When you have reached this spot, as I now tell you, dig a trench a cubit or so in length, breadth, and depth, and pour into it as a drink-offering to all the dead, first, honey mixed with milk, then wine, and in the third place water—sprinkling white barley meal over the whole.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

One with her flush'd cheek laid on her white arm, And raven ringlets gather'd in dark crowd Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm; And smiling through her dream, as through a cloud
— from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron

"They'll raise tobacco, corn, and rye, And drive, and thieve, and cheat, and lie, And lay up treasures in the sky,
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

There are as many regions distinguished as there are clans in the tribe, and it is the place occupied by the clans inside the encampment which has determined the orientation of these regions.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

What remains of this sum, after defraying these different expenses, they may divide among themselves, as compensation for their trouble, in what manner they think proper.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Even the most confident and the stoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming doubtful; and that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, who thought they foresaw all the possessions of the English crown in America subdued by their Christian foes, or laid waste by the inroads of their relentless allies.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

Chartism, the abolition of the corn laws, the formation of trade unions, mining acts, and further extensions of the factory acts were all alike under discussion, and they all created the most intense antagonism between parties and classes.
— from An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England by Edward Potts Cheyney

On another part was the queen, dressed out in her richest ornaments, conducted by the archbishops and bishops to the Church of Virgins; the four queens, also, of the kings last mentioned, bearing before her four white doves, according to ancient custom.
— from The Age of Chivalry by Thomas Bulfinch

He shares in the current faith, without any suspicion or criticism, as to Orpheus, Palamêdês, Dædalus, Amphiôn, Thêseus, Achilles, Cheirôn, and other mythical personages; [995] but what chiefly fills his mind is, the inherited sentiment of deep reverence for these superhuman characters and for the age to which they belonged,—a sentiment sufficiently strong to render him not only an unbeliever in such legends as conflict with it, but also a deliberate creator of new legends for the purpose of expanding and gratifying it.
— from History of Greece, Volume 01 (of 12) by George Grote

But he looked at the dusty young man who questioned him, then showed his mighty disdain at the awful clothes covered with Jamaica real estate, by curling his nostrils and walking away from Jack.
— from Polly's Southern Cruise by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

Yet I think that in the face of gossip which some of your neighbours here are trying to spread—gossip started, I very much fear, by Miss Gabrielle—my absence from Glencardine will be of distinct advantage to all concerned.
— from The House of Whispers by William Le Queux

Did he know that her soul’s flight had reached its limit and must now descend again to a commoner sphere?
— from Ecstasy, A Study of Happiness: A Novel by Louis Couperus

If a fish be placed in such cooked water it swims for a while with its mouth at the surface, for just there is a film that is reacquiring its charge of oxygen, &c., by absorbing it from the air; but this film is so thin, and so poorly charged, that after a short struggle the fish dies for lack of oxygen in its blood; drowned as truly and completely as an air-breathing animal when immersed in any kind of water.
— from The Chemistry of Cookery by W. Mattieu (William Mattieu) Williams

When, therefore, Elizabeth, the elder girl, fell ill within two days after this, and could by no means be made to open her mouth without a good-sized tap being put into it, the thing was certain, and might no longer be gainsayed.
— from Witch Stories by E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton

The tale which is told, and which has hitherto been generally received, is to be found in the London Magazine, for December, 1737:—“Sunday, 18th, this day, according to annual custom, bread and cheese were thrown from Paddington Steeple to the populace, agreeably to the will of two women who were relieved there with bread and cheese when they were almost starved, and Providence afterwards favouring them, they left an estate in that parish to continue the custom for ever on that day.”
— from Paddington: Past and Present by William Robins