All his life he sincerely believed that in certain spheres he was a constant cause of apprehension, that every step he took was watched and noted, and that each one of the three governors who succeeded one another during twenty years in our province came with special and uneasy ideas concerning him, which had, by higher powers, been impressed upon each before everything else, on receiving the appointment.
— from The Possessed (The Devils) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Again, it seems plain that a South African warrior who twists tufts of rat’s hair among his own curly black locks will have just as many chances of avoiding the enemy’s spear as the nimble rat has of avoiding things thrown at it; hence in these regions rats’ hair is in great demand when war is expected.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

It may be said, for instance, that, if voluntary actions be subjected to the same laws of necessity with the operations of matter, there is a continued chain of necessary causes, pre-ordained and pre-determined, reaching from the original cause of all to every single volition of every human creature.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

Terry In the lone tent, waiting for victory, She stands with eyes marred by the mists of pain, Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain: The clamorous clang of arms, the ensanguined sky, War’s ruin, and the wreck of chivalry To her proud soul no common fear can bring: Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King, Her soul a-flame with passionate ecstasy.
— from Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

The San Dominick was in the condition of a transatlantic emigrant ship, among whose multitude of living freight are some individuals, doubtless, as little troublesome as [pg 129] crates and bales; but the friendly remonstrances of such with their ruder companions are of not so much avail as the unfriendly arm of the mate.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

The only currents of air that ever stirred the foliage of the trees in the daytime were like the breath from a furnace, while at night there was hardly any at all.
— from Australia Twice Traversed The Romance of Exploration, Being a Narrative Compiled from the Journals of Five Exploring Expeditions into and Through Central South Australia and Western Australia, from 1872 to 1876 by Ernest Giles

Another preponderating advantage of this machine as compared with those heated with coke or ordinary coal is its clean operation and the extraordinary speed with which it can be both started and stopped.
— from The Manufacture of Chocolate and other Cacao Preparations by Paul Zipperer

Weed out the visionary, the impracticable, the anarchical from their aims; and then what might not be done by this convergence of all these eager social movements?
— from Sunrise by William Black

With respect to Tulips, the pistil that rises in the middle, and contains the Seed, must be dexterously cut out, and the empty space filled with Sand: too many Flowers should not be put into the same Box, nor should the Box be too large.
— from The Toilet of Flora or, A collection of the most simple and approved methods of preparing baths, essences, pomatums, powders, perfumes, and sweet-scented waters. With receipts for cosmetics of every kind, that can smooth and brighten the skin, give force to beauty, and take off the appearance of old age and decay by Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz

"Give them steam for the winch, Mr. James," the captain ordered; and the engineer slouched away.
— from The Coast of Adventure by Harold Bindloss

The Chronicle of Alfonso the Eleventh speaks of a certain famine which broke out among the Spanish troops, and caused them such privation
— from The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 1 (of 3) by Leonard Williams

Well now, you just brace up and cut out all that emotional stuff.
— from The Easiest Way Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911 by Eugene Walter