This booklet aroused considerable discussion, particularly between those who favored the paper filter and those who, with Mr. Aborn, believed cotton cloth, such as muslin, to be the most efficient strainer.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Turning his dividers about from point to point on the map, he decided in a moment the number of marches necessary for each of his columns to arrive at the desired point by a certain day; then, placing pins in the new positions, and bearing in mind the rate of marching that he must assign to each column, and the hour of its setting out, he dictated those instructions which are alone enough to make any man famous.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

If we inquire into the characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great portions of human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, by a close dress or flowing garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force, consisting, for the most part, either of infantry or cavalry; and above all, by the use of the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian language; the last of which has been diffused by conquest, from the confines of Italy to the neighborhood of Japan.
— 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

Miss Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and laughing and fussing, walking after each other to the head of the stairs, peering down over the banisters and calling down to Lily to ask her who had come.
— from Dubliners by James Joyce

And the devil that then told thee that it was a light sin, or no sin at all, now aggravates on the other side, and telleth thee, that it is a most irremissible offence, as he did by Cain and Judas, to bring them to despair; every small circumstance before neglected and contemned, will now amplify itself, rise up in judgment, and accuse the dust of their shoes, dumb creatures, as to Lucian's tyrant, lectus et candela , the bed and candle did bear witness, to torment their souls for their sins past.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

Whether owing to this disturbing experience, or because, as Crowley declared, he had "imprudently attracted to himself forces of evil too great and terrible for him to withstand, presumably Abramelin demons," Mathers' reason began to totter.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

The mountains, he says, these great rock-mountains, they shall dissipate themselves "like clouds;" melt into the Blue as clouds do, and not be!
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

A brief description from Thackeray's English Humorists is his best epitaph: A life prosperous and beautiful, a calm death; an immense fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless name.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

There had been reconnaissances, marches, and countermarches, a sending of ships toward Long Island without entering, however, "dans la baie d'Oyster," skirmishes which looked like preliminaries to more important operations, and in one of which, together with the two Berthiers and Count de Vauban, Closen nearly lost his life in order to save his hat.
— from With Americans of Past and Present Days by J. J. (Jean Jules) Jusserand

Next morning, as Lucien and Coralie sat at breakfast, a carriage drove along the Rue de Vendome.
— from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honoré de Balzac

By A Conan Doyle.
— from The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, February 1904, No. 159. by Various

A despatch boat of the Italian navy has picked up at sea an English sailor on a spar, the last of the crew of the American barque Squashy commanded by a Captain Dodge.
— from Luttrell Of Arran by Charles James Lever

The shrewd lawyer, however, to say the least of him, was not altogether devoid of courage, and, albeit his valour was modified by a certain degree of discretion, he loved to be first when anything was to be gained by leading the van.
— from William Shakespeare as He Lived: An Historical Tale by Henry Curling

On a small island in the Thames he built a church dedicated to St. Peter, where now is Westminster Abbey, a prosperous sanctuary entirely out of debt.
— from Comic History of England by Bill Nye

At first Esther had exposed and laughed at them as merely humorous mistakes; but that attitude had long been replaced by a cold disgust which did not scruple to call things by their right names.
— from Up the Hill and Over by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

She declared she would marry no one but a certain duke, who, as she had observed in the council and in the state banquets and balls, was always very quiet and hardly ever spoke at all.
— from Roman Legends: A collection of the fables and folk-lore of Rome by Rachel Harriette Busk

Volviendo á Oran halló que Juana, su muger, era muerta, la qual por no tener hijos ningunos le dejó por su heredero legitimo de todos sus bienes, asi como de los sueldos vencidos de su padre Francisco de Castañeda” f. 196 102.
— from Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum. Vol. 4 by Pascual de Gayangos