DUTCH UNCLE, a personage often introduced in conversation, but exceedingly difficult to describe; “I’ll talk to him like a DUTCH UNCLE !”
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

Whether my lord really had murderous intentions towards Mrs. Becky as Monsieur Fiche said (since Monseigneur's death he has returned to his native country, where he lives much respected, and has purchased from his Prince the title of Baron Ficci), and the factotum objected to have to do with assassination; or whether he simply had a commission to frighten Mrs. Crawley out of a city where his Lordship proposed to pass the winter, and the sight of her would be eminently disagreeable to the great nobleman, is a point which has never been ascertained: but the threat had its effect upon the little woman, and she sought no more to intrude herself upon the presence of her old patron.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Famine is almost always followed by epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome food.
— 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 clergy, and St. Bernard especially, denounced them and held them up to public contempt.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

I never felt happier, I never understood nature better, even down to the veriest stem or smallest blade of grass; and yet I am unable to express myself: my powers of execution are so weak, everything seems to swim and float before me, so that I cannot make a clear, bold outline.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[87] Even when the extent of the material damage has been established, it will be exceedingly difficult to put a price on it, which must largely depend on the period over which restoration is spread, and the methods adopted.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

Oliver was sitting thus one night, his head in his hands, elbows on his knees, gazing into the smouldering coals of his grate, his favorite attitude when his mind was troubled, when Fred, his face aglow, his big blue eyes dancing, threw wide the door and bounded in, bringing in his clothes the fresh, cool air of the night.
— from The Fortunes of Oliver Horn by Francis Hopkinson Smith

But though this has never been explicitly denied, the important results following from its recognition have been obscured and befogged by several conceptions and phrases relating to capital which have found acceptance among English economists.
— from The Evolution of Modern Capitalism: A Study of Machine Production by J. A. (John Atkinson) Hobson

Thy garb—though Austria's bosom-star would frighten That medal pale, as diamonds, the dark mine, And George the Fourth wore, in the dance at Brighton, A more becoming evening dress than thine; Yet 'tis a brave one, scorning wind and weather, And fitted for thy couch on field and flood, As Rob Roy's tartans for the highland heather, Or forest green for England's Robin Hood.
— from Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2) Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters by B. B. (Benjamin Bussey) Thatcher

"I been everything down to a sharp with the cards, which is tolerable low.
— from The Rangeland Avenger by Max Brand

There was much harshness and injustice in Roman imperialism; but what nobler epitaph could even the British empire desire than the tribute of Claudian, when the weary Titan was at last stricken and dying:
— from Outspoken Essays by William Ralph Inge

Nor were bottles ever delivered to his room in boxes marked "Candles."
— from Ann Arbor Tales by Karl Edwin Harriman

Mr. Gallatin observed, it would be extremely difficult to point out any mode of taxation which will not be inconvenient and oppressive, in some degree, for some part of the people to pay; and it must be expected that every mode which can be adopted, will bear more hardly on some parts of the community than on others.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16) by United States. Congress

The judge and his wife are two companions, growing old together in simplicity and innocence, happy in the truest sense—loving each other far more in age than in youth, which is perfectly natural in life if not in fiction; because every day they become more necessary to each other and have common interests extending over many years.
— from Essays on Modern Novelists by William Lyon Phelps

Capable of being attained or reached by efforts of the mind or body; capable of being compassed or accomplished by efforts directed to the object.
— from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1st 100 Pages) by Noah Webster