It is about 150 miles long, and from 40 to 50 broad; in circumference, some 320; a country large enough, and sufficiently distant from the nearest shores, to have subsisted as an independent state, if the welfare and happiness of the human race had ever been considered as the end and aim of policy.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey

There were other sports and pastimes common alike to Easter and to the Sabbath day, which are full of curious interest.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

They seized the hints we gave them; and though at first they could not arrive at perfection, yet by making many essays they at last found out and corrected all their errors and conquered every difficulty.
— from Utopia by More, Thomas, Saint

He had been one of the French prophets, [29] and could act their enthusiastic agitations.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

The prisoners in their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway, when I entered.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Hougomont and La Haie-Sainte continued to burn, forming, one in the west, the other in the east, two great flames which were joined by the cordon of bivouac fires of the English, like a necklace of rubies with two carbuncles at the extremities, as they extended in an immense semicircle over the hills along the horizon.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Besides, in so far as the beings to whom the cult is addressed are imaginary, they are not able to contain and regulate this exuberance; the pressure of tangible and resisting realities is required to confine activities to exact and economical forms.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

Not long after his departure Diomedon arrived with ten Athenian ships, and, having made a convention by which the Teians admitted him as they had the enemy, coasted along to Erae, and, failing in an attempt upon the town, sailed back again.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

I was not aware of it myself, but I felt it necessary to uphold the institutions of my county, and to evince a familiarity with them; so I shook my head, as much as to say, ‘I believe you!’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

But Botho would not be turned aside from what he considered to be his duty as an escort, and so the two together had traversed in a rickety old cab the long, long road by the canal, constantly trying to keep up a conversation about the excursion, and "how lovely it had been"--a terribly forced conversation, which had made Botho feel only too plainly how right Lena's feeling had been, when in an almost imploring tone she had begged him not to escort her further.
— from German Fiction by Gottfried Keller

They, moreover, took two very rash and very grave resolutions—to guarantee the people against all violence on account of their creeds, and to engage a force of German soldiery, four thousand horse and forty companies of infantry by, "wart geld" or retaining wages.
— from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-84) by John Lothrop Motley

Several magnificent buildings of brick, faced with marble of different colours, are partly seen, where the workmen have cleared away the earth and lava with which they were encrusted.
— from The Parent's Assistant; Or, Stories for Children by Maria Edgeworth

New and undisciplined forces are often confounded at the evolutions, and strategic and tactical combinations of a regular army, and lose all confidence in their leaders and in themselves.
— from Elements of Military Art and Science Or, Course Of Instruction In Strategy, Fortification, Tactics Of Battles, &C.; Embracing The Duties Of Staff, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, And Engineers; Adapted To The Use Of Volunteers And Militia; Third Edition; With Critical Notes On The Mexican And Crimean Wars. by H. W. (Henry Wager) Halleck

There never has been a revolt of any consequence against the emperor, although there have been numerous conflicts between the shoguns.
— from The Old World and Its Ways Describing a Tour Around the World and Journeys Through Europe by William Jennings Bryan

Besides, it is well known that the continents at the equator are more elevated than they are in higher latitudes.
— from On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences by Mary Somerville

Once, when she turned suddenly toward him, in the second entr'acte, she saw a look on Chris's face that gave her an odd second of something like fear, but the house darkened again before she could analyze the emotion, and Norma glued her eyes to the footlights.
— from The Beloved Woman by Kathleen Thompson Norris

A splintering crash sounded in his ears as the lattice top of the arbor broke under him, and with one final clutch at the empty air he fell heavily upon the ground beneath.
— from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle

Thus it happened that the popular young orator became a member of the Supreme Court at the early age of thirty-one, being the youngest member of the court, save Daniel D. Tompkins, to serve on the old, conservative Council of Revision.
— from A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 by De Alva Stanwood Alexander

I have champed up all that chaff about the ego and the non-ego, about noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too often not to know that in attempting even to think of these questions, the human intellect flounders at once out of its depth.
— from Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1 by Thomas Henry Huxley