[The destruction of Baghdad by Hulaku made Tabriz the great commercial and political city of Asia, and diverted the route of Indian products from the Mediterranean to the Euxine.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

When converted by subsidence into large separate islands there will still have existed many individuals of the same species on each island: intercrossing on the confines of the range of each new species will have been checked: after physical changes of any kind immigration will have been prevented, so that new places in the polity of each island will have had to be filled up by the modification of the old inhabitants; and time will have been allowed for the varieties in each to become well modified and perfected.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

Indeed, our pleasant meeting to-day is a proof that when what is good comes of age and is likely to live, there is reason for rejoicing, and the relation between us as clergyman and parishioners came of age two years ago, for it is three-and-twenty years since I first came among you, and I see some tall fine-looking young men here, as well as some blooming young women, that were far from looking as pleasantly at me when I christened them as I am happy to see them looking now.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

When converted by subsidence into large separate islands, there will still exist many individuals of the same species on each island: intercrossing on the confines of the range of each species will thus be checked: after physical changes of any kind, immigration will be prevented, so that new places in the polity of each island will have to be filled up by modifications of the old inhabitants; and time will be allowed for the varieties in each to become well modified and perfected.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

The result was thus stated by the author himself in a letter to a friend in California: “I presume you have heard through the public press how nearly I became editor and part owner of the ‘Lakeside,’ and how the childishness and provincial character of a few of the principal citizens of Chicago spoiled the project.”
— from The Life of Bret Harte, with Some Account of the California Pioneers by Henry Childs Merwin

Carbines and pistols crack on all sides, but those who fire do not live to reload them.
— from The White Chief: A Legend of Northern Mexico by Mayne Reid

It is equally well known that, when the air is infected by particles of decomposing vegetable and animal matter, fevers are produced of various types and different degrees of intensity; that the exhalations arising from marshes, bogs, and other uncultivated and undrained places, constitute a poison chiefly of a vegetable nature, which produces principally fevers of an intermittent or remittent type; and that exhalations accumulated in close, ill-ventilated, and crowded apartments in the confined situations of densely-populated cities, where little attention is paid to the removal of putrefying and excrementitious matters, constitute a poison chiefly of an animal nature, which produces continued fever of the typhoid character.
— from A supplementary report on the results of a special inquiry into the practice of interment in towns. by Edwin Chadwick

January 30, 1864, the tax was increased to two cents a pound, collectible on all cotton coming from the Confederate States.
— from Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama by Walter L. (Walter Lynwood) Fleming

Then the blacksmith (Fraser) and his trusty companions raised a cry (calling some particular regiments by their names) to the Prince's army to advance, as if they had been at hand, which so far imposed upon Lord Loudon and his command (a pretty considerable one) and struck them with such a panic, that instantly they beat a retreat and made their way back to Inverness in great disorder, imagining the Prince's whole army to be at their heels."
— from The Pipes of War A Record of Achievements of Pipers of Scottish and Overseas Regiments during the War, 1914-18 by John (Pipe-Major) Grant

These bildars work with a kind of mattock, called a phourah , consisting of a blade, about as large as that of a common garden-spade, furnished with a very strong eye at the top, rivetted to the blade, and set on so as to give the handle a direction of about 70° from the plane of the blade, which is slightly curved inwards.
— from The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2) or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company. by Thomas Williamson

The objections to the home-rule plan, as far as we can gather them from the English and Tory Irish press—for the politicians have carefully avoided its discussion—are principally three: I. The confusion and possible conflict of authority which might arise from having two co-ordinate legislative assemblies under the same government.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 19, April 1874‐September 1874 by Various

He contemplated and partly carried out a scheme for turning the Mincio and the Brenta from their channels, and for drying up the lagoons of Venice.
— from Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) The Age of the Despots by John Addington Symonds