A reptile with edible legs.
— from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

In fact both researches are very nearly related, even though we are not able to give a reason why each language has just this and no other formal constitution, and still less why an exact number of such formal determinations in general are found in it.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant

The musk-ox of the Arctic regions, when encountered, likewise stamps on the ground.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

But some way westward from the Bridge, in this line, a ravine was encountered lengthwise, which was held to present great engineering difficulties.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

The first thing he did was to turn round in the cage in which he lay, and protrude his claws, and stretch himself thoroughly; he next opened his mouth, and yawned very leisurely, and with near two palms' length of tongue that he had thrust forth, he licked the dust out of his eyes and washed his face; having done this, he put his head out of the cage and looked all round with eyes like glowing coals, a spectacle and demeanour to strike terror into temerity itself.
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

One of the finest breeds, the Palmatian, was the forfeiture of a rebel, whose estate lay about sixteen miles from Tyana, near the great road between Constantinople and Antioch.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The first thing he did was to turn round in the cage in which he lay, and protrude his claws, and stretch himself thoroughly; he next opened his mouth, and yawned very leisurely, and with near two palms’ length of tongue that he had thrust forth, he licked the dust out of his eyes and washed his face; having done this, he put his head out of the cage and looked all round with eyes like glowing coals, a spectacle and demeanour to strike terror into temerity itself.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

But he had little imagination, and his technical training had not emancipated him from an exaggerated insistence on detail, which so completely controlled his treatment of his subject that breadth and repose were entirely lost sight of.
— from The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I by William James Stillman

And, indeed, death, in a situation quiet, certain, and uniform, may be felt as a strange event, a frightful contrast, a terrible change; but in this tumult, this violent and ceaseless movement of a life of action, danger, and suffering, it appeared nothing more than a transition, a slight alteration, an additional removal, which excited little alarm.
— from The Camp-fires of Napoleon Comprising The Most Brilliant Achievemnents of the Emperor and His Marshals by Henry C. (Henry Clay) Watson

M. de Bourgoing, formerly French minister at St Petersburg, and author of a recent work, entitled, Les guerres d'idiome et de nationalité , 710 has published a commentary upon the Russian memoir, which he tells us was prepared by one of the ablest and best-informed employés in the Russian Chancellerie, after the events of February.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 404, June, 1849 by Various

We are now prepared for the further consideration of a point already adverted to, and regarding which error long found currency.
— from Six Lectures on Light Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 by John Tyndall

When he had to go by the house, he kept close to the walls, lowered his head, and almost ran without ever looking back.
— from Jean-Christophe, Volume I by Romain Rolland

Was it possible that, on account of a request which every lover ventured to address to his lady, she would withdraw the favour which rendered him so happy?
— from In the Fire of the Forge: A Romance of Old Nuremberg — Volume 02 by Georg Ebers

Notwithstanding the strong personal convictions of the President and the Secretary of State of the validity of this claim as it was asserted in Mr. Polk’s inaugural address, deference for the action of former administrations and a desire to avoid a rupture with England, led the President to authorize Mr. Buchanan to offer the 49th parallel as the boundary.
— from Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 1 (of 2) by George Ticknor Curtis

We can not fairly compare these poor people with ourselves, who have an atmosphere of Christianity and enlightened public opinion, the growth of centuries, around us, to influence our deportment; but let any one from the natural and proper point of view behold the public morality of Griqua Town, Kuruman, Likatlong, and other villages, and remember what even London was a century ago, and he must confess that the Christian mode of treating aborigines is incomparably the best.
— from Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone

Ryecroft more than ever embarrassed, feels it a relief when Ellen Lees, with the Rev. Mr. Musgrave as her cavalier attendant—they, too, straying solitarily—approach near enough to be hailed, and invited into the pavilion.
— from Gwen Wynn: A Romance of the Wye by Mayne Reid