The reason why these names are used, and the circumstances under which they are ordinarily applied by us to the division of the heavens, may be elucidated by the following supposition:—if a person were to stand in that part of the universe which is the appointed place of fire, and where there is the great mass of fire to which fiery bodies gather—if, I say, he were to ascend thither, and, having the power to do this, were to abstract particles of fire and put them in scales and weigh them, and then, raising the balance, were to draw the fire by force towards the uncongenial element of the air, it would be very evident that he could compel the smaller mass more readily than the larger; for when two things are simultaneously raised by one and the same power, the smaller body must necessarily yield to the superior power with less reluctance than the larger; and the larger body is called heavy and said to tend downwards, and the smaller body is called light and said to tend upwards.
— from Timaeus by Plato

No one, who had not some good blood in their veins, would dare to be called Fitz; there was a deal in a name—she had had a cousin who spelt his name with two little ffs—ffoulkes—and he always looked down upon capital letters and said they belonged to lately-invented families.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

three of this same tribe of villains the Wah-clel-lars, stole my dog this evening, and took him towards their village; I was shortly afterwards informed of this transaction by an indian who spoke the Clatsop language, and sent three men in pursuit of the theives with orders if they made the least resistence or difficulty in surrendering the dog to fire on them; they overtook these fellows or reather came within sight of them at the distance of about 2 miles; the indians discovering the party in pursuit of them left the dog and fled.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

It would now be he who could laugh and shoot the shafts of derision.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane

The staff officers will divide the depots into departments, the principal depot being established in the town which can lodge and supply the greatest number of men: if there is a fortress suitably situated, it should be selected as the site of the principal depot.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

And all at that marvel of the sword, Cast like a stone to slay, Cried out.
— from The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage.
— from Peter Pan by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie

There was silence in the cabin, except for the breath which came like a sob to the girl's lips as she turned to the window and looked out into the blaze of golden sunlight that filled the tundra.
— from The Alaskan by James Oliver Curwood

These forests are very useful in delivering princes from their courtiers, like a sieve that keeps back the bran.
— from Half-Hours with Great Story-Tellers Artemus Ward, George Macdonald, Max Adeler, Samuel Lover, and Others by Various

A little later the store was in darkness, except for a small light burning near the safe, so the passing policeman could look and see that no burglars were breaking into it.
— from The Story of a Stuffed Elephant by Laura Lee Hope

The terms employed are either letters of the alphabet, or the words of common language, or the technicalities of science; and since the words of common language are most in use, it is necessary to give some account of common language as subserving the purposes of Logic.
— from Logic: Deductive and Inductive by Carveth Read

The Puritans, who had crossed the ocean in search of freedom of thought, refused to grant a similar freedom to those who came later, and sought to found a system as intolerant as that from which they had fled.
— from A New History of the United States The greater republic, embracing the growth and achievements of our country from the earliest days of discovery and settlement to the present eventful year by Charles Morris

There was indeed {24} at this time some rivalry between the civil and the canon law and so the study of civil law was relegated to other universities.
— from The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

Hastily closing the book again, I dashed up the companion ladder and shouted to Simpson: “Mr Simpson, ’bout ship at once, if you please.
— from A Middy in Command: A Tale of the Slave Squadron by Harry Collingwood