When their long lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors furiously spurred their horses against the foe; and the light cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could seldom stand against the direct and impetuous weight of their charge.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The mode in which the cranium is set upon the cervical spine serves also to diffuse the pressure at the points where the two opposing forces meet--viz., at the first cervical vertebra E and the cranial basilar process F.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

“Your proposed retirement is charming,” said she, “and much to my taste, but we are necessitated to remain here, for, on quitting this dungeon, I hazard losing the very means of life, and when these fail us in the woods, we must again return to seek them in the city.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The bas-relief is equally without limit, and may be continued ad infinitum, either from before or behind, on which account the ancients preferred for it such subjects as admitted of an indefinite extension, sacrificial processions, dances, and lines of combatants, and hence they also exhibit bas-reliefs on curved surfaces, such as vases, or the frieze of a rotunda, where, by the curvature, the two ends are withdrawn from our sight, and where, while we advance, one object appears as another disappears.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Instead of doing as the admiral wished, the leading ships (a) carried sail so as to reach their supposed station abreast their numerical opposite in the order.
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

It can sweetly sing at a prayer meeting, and smile graciously when it is the right time to smile, and makes an excellent nurse to pour out with steady hand a few drops of peppermint for a child that feels disturbances under the waistband, but has no qualification for the robust Christian work that is demanded.
— from Around the Tea-Table by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage

Perplexed and frightened at she knew not what, she hurried on, only losing herself more effectually, seeing no outer door to the [Pg 82] vast, wandering building, and, strangely enough, meeting no one of whom to learn the way out, until as she desperately turned into yet another long corridor she stumbled against a gentleman coming in the opposite direction.
— from The Senator's Bride by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

I was wondering if you would really come," she said, archly.
— from Little Nobody by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.