The provincial governors declared themselves ready to listen to any accusation that might affect the public safety; but as soon as they were informed that it was a question not of facts but of words, a dispute relating only to the interpretation of the Jewish laws and prophecies, they deemed it unworthy of the majesty of Rome seriously to discuss the obscure differences which might arise among a barbarous and superstitious people.
— 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 general direction of the urethra measured during its relaxed state from the vesical orifice to the glans is usually described as having the form of the letter S laid procumbent to the right side [capital S rotated 90 degrees right] or to the left [capital S rotated 90 degrees left].
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

She shall dearly repent of this trick, if my name be Jewkes; and, coming to me, took hold of my arm so roughly, and gave me such a pull, as made me squeal out, (my shoulder being bruised on that side,) and drew me on my face.
— from Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

The disastrous results of this tendency were seen in the Irish Intellectuals, nourished from infancy on the story of Ireland's wrongs, who, instead of sanely facing present problems, unhinged their minds by brooding on historic grievances, thereby sealing their own doom and plunging their country into ruin.
— from Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta Helen Webster

The ordinary intensive prefix for adjectives and adverbs is re- (R. 596; K. 159); but in popular speech this is often doubled, rere- , or takes the form rete- (C. 146, 3, a ).
— from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

First, there’s the room you can see through the glass—that’s just the same as our drawing room, only the things go the other way.
— from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

[1] See the Spanish and Danish romances of the thirteenth century.
— from On Love by Stendhal

Even then the shrewdest were constantly mistaken in their judgements, and marriages were often contracted with most deplorable results, owing to the art with which infirmity had been concealed.
— from Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

Satuba (when his wife and children died) ran off to the woods, and there he met an orang kramat , who gave him this charm against cholera:—
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

Markgraf Friedrich of Misnia, Landgraf also of Thuringia, having brought his tedious warfare to a conclusion, and the country beginning now to revive under peace, his subjects were busy repaying themselves for the past distresses by all manner of diversions; to which end, apparently by the Sovereign’s order, a dramatic representation of the Ten Virgins was schemed, and at Eisenach, in his presence, duly executed.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

But there are some incidents in human experience to which the heart alone is able to give life; there are certain details—shall we call them anatomical?—the delicate touches of which cannot be made to reappear unless by an equally delicate rendering of thought; there are portraits which require the infusion of a soul, and mean nothing unless the subtlest expression of the speaking countenance is given; furthermore, there are things which we know not how to say or do without the aid of secret harmonies which a day, an hour, a fortunate conjunction of celestial signs, or an inward moral tendency may produce.
— from Madame Firmiani by Honoré de Balzac

In 1897 the army of General Lachambre advanced against Imus, and on the 24th March took the outer defences of the town, notwithstanding the determined resistance of the Tagals, of whom three hundred were killed in a hand-to-hand combat.
— from The Inhabitants of the Philippines by Frederic H. Sawyer

Far below, the river, growing dark, rolled out to the lake; close to its edge on the farther shore could be descried, after long searching of the eye, the puffs of white smoke from crawling trains; vessels could be picked out, tugs and smaller craft, great propellers that bore coal and ore and lumber up and down the lakes; here and there a white passenger-steamer, but all diminutive in the long perspective.
— from The Turn of the Balance by Brand Whitlock

Avendaño y Loyola , Fray Andrés de Relation of Two Trips to Peten.
— from History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Hard University. Vol. VII. by Philip Ainsworth Means

He shuddered as he saw the dangling rope on the tree near the well.
— from Army Boys on the Firing Line; or, Holding Back the German Drive by Homer Randall

The net effect of the excess of expenditures and debt redemption on the Treasury cash balance, as compared with selected previous years, is shown in the following table: EXCESS Of BUDGET EXPENDITURES, THE PUBLIC DEBT, AND THE TREASURY CASH BALANCE IN SELECTED YEARS Excess of At end of period Budget ex-
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

Absolute blackness filled with the deafening roar of the thunder and deluging rain succeeded, and they rushed towards the shelter of the house.
— from Across the Stream by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

The silence of his surroundings, broken only by such sounds as a distant roll of thunder, the lash of rain through the foliage of some big trees, the noise of the wind tossing the leaves of the forest, and of the short seas breaking against the shore, favoured rather than hindered his solitary meditation.
— from Victory: An Island Tale by Joseph Conrad

A BAND of Maori women, slowly chanting in a high, strained key, stood at the gate of a pah, and met with this song a few Englishmen who were driving rapidly on to their land.
— from Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries During 1866-7 by Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir

But that thou mayest more fully and distinctly apprehend in the commencement of this Third Book, which relates entirely to the inward man, how the children of God are to be drawn from the exterior to the interior man, or the ground of the heart; that they may search, know, purify, and change it, and keep their spiritual eyes fixed upon God, and his kingdom in the inmost recesses of the soul; that the reader, I say, may more fully understand this, I shall first of all more generally in this chapter, and then more particularly, touch upon and explain the several heads of this doctrine, referring occasionally to the Theology of Dr. John Tauler, and quoting him as often as possible in his own words.
— from True Christianity A Treatise on Sincere Repentence, True Faith, the Holy Walk of the True Christian, Etc. by Johann Arndt