The communication performed its errand so well, that within ten minutes of the messenger’s return and report of its delivery, Miss Brass herself was announced.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Besides, he hath opened unto me, and resolved other inestimable doubts, wherein I can assure you he hath to me discovered the very true well, fountain, and abyss of the encyclopaedia of learning; yea, in such a sort that I did not think I should ever have found a man that could have made his skill appear in so much as the first elements of that concerning which we disputed by signs, without speaking either word or half word.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Inca , m. , a race of Indians dominant in Perú in the 15th and 16th centuries .
— from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson

A scientific explanation of the phenomenon ascribed it to phosphuretted hydrogen, a result of incipient decomposition.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

The least populous countries are thus the fittest for tyranny: fierce animals reign only in deserts.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

He was careful to conceal his infidelities from her, and often succeeded in averting scenes and reproaches; or, if denial seemed impossible, he tried to palliate his fault and gain indulgence by addressing to her one of those poetical odes in which he excelled, and from which she derived such pride and joy.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud

An Army which preserves its usual formations under the heaviest fire, which is never shaken by imaginary fears, and in the face of real danger disputes the ground inch by inch, which, proud in the feeling of its victories, never loses its sense of obedience, its respect for and confidence in its leaders, even under the depressing effects of defeat; an Army with all its physical powers, inured to privations and fatigue by exercise, like the muscles of an athlete; an Army which looks upon all its toils as the means to victory, not as a curse which hovers over its standards, and which is always reminded of its duties and virtues by the short catechism of one idea, namely the HONOUR OF ITS ARMS;—Such an Army is imbued with the true military spirit.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

[Pg 156] sociological change as a result of improvement during war.
— from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

[264] Conclusion The recorded or manuscript Fairy-Faith of the Gaels corresponds in all essentials with the living Gaelic Fairy-Faith: the Tuatha De Danann or Sidhe , the ‘Gentry’, the ‘Good People’, and the ‘People of Peace’ are described as a race of invisible divine beings eternally young and unfading.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. (Walter Yeeling) Evans-Wentz

“Jake grinned, half closed his eyes, and replied: ‘Oh, I don’t know that there’s anything queer about it.
— from The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Complete by Abraham Lincoln

Nor is this interpretation of Gothic design other than a result of its descent from the Egyptian ancestral motive, where the temple columns represented the single stem of the lotus with one large blossom for its capital, or else a bundle of stems of the lotus, palm, and convolvulus flowering together into a beautiful cluster.
— from Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess

It is by far the most sumptuous building for amusement in existence, but in purity of detail and in the balance and restraint of its design it is inferior to the work of Visconti and Lefuel (Fig. 210).
— from A Text-Book of the History of Architecture Seventh Edition, revised by A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster) Hamlin

He might have continued to demand the reference of his cause to a General Council; but, had this been granted, there was the extreme probability that his enemies would refuse, and persuade many more to refuse, a recognition of its decision.
— from Saint John Chrysostom, His Life and Times A sketch of the church and the empire in the fourth century by W. R. W. (William Richard Wood) Stephens

No power to make laws for the purpose of — (1) Establishing or endowing any religion or imposing disabilities or conferring privileges on account of religion , or affecting the undenominational constitution of National schools, etc. (1) Ditto, ditto, but more explicit and far-reaching.
— from The Framework of Home Rule by Erskine Childers

They were actually consulting how to guard against possible inroads from the savage at night, since he might be lurking near, when I mounted and rode off; I daresay even their hearing that I was a live and real lieutenant would cap the whole story.
— from The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant by George Cupples

[696] Neither does the average rate of interest depend on their scarcity or abundance, but upon the operation of more general causes.
— from History of Civilization in England, Vol. 3 of 3 by Henry Thomas Buckle

"Well, your synopsis will be considered, and reported on in due course," announced the composer, after a pause; "but at the moment of going to press we would rather buy a hat for Madeleine."
— from A Chair on the Boulevard by Leonard Merrick

Quashed, and summoned to disgorge their booty, the autocrats of the Hôtel-de-ville come in vain to the Assembly in force on the following day 3141 to extort from it a repeal of its decrees; the Assembly, in spite of their threats and those of their satellites, stands its ground.—So much the worse for the stubborn; if they are not disposed to regard the flash of the saber, they will feel its sharp edge and point.
— from The French Revolution - Volume 2 by Hippolyte Taine