Not only were they tied to the land or master, but they could not marry without his consent, and if slaves of neighbouring estates intermarried, their children were distributed between the owners of the several properties.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

Now if we see double numbers prove such a weight in the scale against the greatest Generals, we may be sure, that in ordinary cases, in small as well as great combats, an important superiority of numbers, but which need not be over two to one, will be sufficient to ensure the victory, however disadvantageous other circumstances may be.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

If, to such enumeration, a notice respecting the duties of each were appended, an interesting peep might be afforded to the curious of the internal government of our singular community, and information supplied on not a few points, respecting which most people are entirely ignorant.
— from The Lieutenant and Commander Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from Fragments of Voyages and Travels by Basil Hall

The sun itself, bright and cheering as it shone over Nature, making the green sod glow like emeralds, and the rivulet flash in its beam, like one of those streams of real light, imagined by Swedenborg in his visions of heaven, and clothing tree and fell, brake and hillock, with the lavish hues of infant summer,—the sun itself only made more desolate, because more conspicuous, the venerable fabric, which the youthful traveller frequently paused more accurately to survey, and its laughing and sportive beams playing over chink and crevice, seemed almost as insolent and untimeous as the mirth of the young mocking the silent grief of some gray-headed and solitary mourner.
— from The Disowned — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

Of course, as I say, one never really knows one’s ground, and one may make mistakes occasionally.
— from Reginald by Saki

My view of the situation was that the natives had gathered about us in the hope that, in the fog and darkness, they might be able to steal alongside and climb aboard in such overwhelming numbers as to secure possession of the deck and overpower us by taking us by surprise, and that they had been restrained from making the attempt only by the sounds of bustle and activity that had accompanied our endeavours to get the ship afloat.
— from A Middy in Command: A Tale of the Slave Squadron by Harry Collingwood

It would be better to have her in a separate chamber, and if some old nurse would come in.
— from A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia by Amanda M. Douglas

How many centuries would it take for Christianity, even if embraced by all the people of Japan or China, to make as noble Christians as in Scotland or New England?
— from The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization. by John Lord

Intelligent Americans will be interested in the opinions held by a clear-headed, capable English writer of the characters of leaders like Mr. Asquith, Lloyd George, Mr. Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil, Winston Churchill, and others, and they will find in these pages first-hand information and clever and incisive studies of noteworthy men whose influence has counted, and is still to count, in shaping the history of Britain and of the world.
— from The Mirrors of Downing Street Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster by Harold Begbie

There is no denying that facts can be classified and it seems only natural to take it for granted that whatever can be classified must share some quality with whatever belongs to the same class, that, indeed, it is just on account of all sharing the same common quality that facts can be classified as being all of the same kind.
— from The Misuse of Mind by Karin Stephen

The above conditions indicate that the population and also the wealth increased with such remarkable rapidity in Class I along the entire watercourse independently of the topographical conditions and in spite of natural disadvantages.
— from The Great American Canals (Volume 2, The Erie Canal) by Archer Butler Hulbert

By the Indians, a pigeon roost or breeding place is considered an important source of national profit and dependence for the season, and all their active ingenuity is exercised on the occasion.
— from Stories about the Instinct of Animals, Their Characters, and Habits by Thomas Bingley