A line of only one thickness can be drawn with it, but this can be drawn in any direction, an advantage over most other shapes.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed

In the distance the outlines of the Obelisk could be discerned in a cloud of golden vapor.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

I cannot but deem it likewise an advantage in the Italian tongue, in many other respects inferior to our own, that the language of poetry is more distinct from that of prose than with us.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

So that when it is said, taste cannot be disputed, it can only mean, that no one can strictly answer what pleasure or pain some particular man may find from the taste of some particular thing.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

Let the rest, excluding the cymatium, be divided into twelve parts.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio

Who could be dead in that house, which Villefort himself had called accursed?
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

May not the same contrast be discerned in the language of St John?
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon A revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations by J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot

And, in the same manner, if, without an exclusive company, the trade of Sweden and Denmark to the East Indies would be less than it actually is, or, what perhaps is more probable, would not exist at all, those two countries must likewise suffer a considerable loss, by part of their capital being drawn into an employment which must be more or less unsuitable to their present circumstances.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Judging from his upright and motionless figure, from his manners, and his behaviour to the shepherds and to his horse, he was a serious, reasonable man who knew his own value; even in the darkness signs could be detected in him of military carriage and of the majestically condescending expression gained by frequent intercourse with the gentry and their stewards.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

It dawdles, lags, idles, and plays; only when it is carrying burdens does it really work.
— from The Truth About the Congo: The Chicago Tribune Articles by Frederick Starr

If this one truth alone could be deeply impressed upon the hearts of men, it would regenerate the whole human race.
— from Imaginary Conversations and Poems: A Selection by Walter Savage Landor

A tone of surprise as well as of sadness can be detected in the pathetic double questions.
— from Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke by Alexander Maclaren

559 This ethical difference between Jeremiah and the prophets is clear beyond doubt; it was profound and fundamental.
— from Jeremiah : Being The Baird Lecture for 1922 by George Adam Smith

Of the gardens, which, as she distinctly remembered, extended on both sides of the narrow path, scarcely the outlines of the rows of trees could be distinguished in the mist.
— from A Struggle for Rome, v. 1 by Felix Dahn

If the legislature authorizes the addition of any new servitude, essentially distinct from the ordinary use of a highway, like an elevated railroad, then the land-owner is entitled to additional compensation; for it cannot be deemed, in law, to have been within the contemplation of the parties, at the time of the laying out of the road, that it might be used for such new and additional purposes.
— from The Road and the Roadside by Burton Willis Potter

At the farm below, the rooks have been down and destroyed the tender chickens not long hatched; they do not eat the whole of the chicken, but disembowel it for food.
— from Field and Hedgerow: Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies by Richard Jefferies