Jeff Thompson can out-engineer any civil engineer that ever sighted through an aneroid, or a theodolite, or whatever they call it—he calls it sometimes one and sometimes the other just whichever levels off his sentence neatest, I reckon.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

Nullum solum infelici gratius solitudine, ubi nullus sit qui miseriam exprobret ; this enforced solitariness takes place, and produceth his effect soonest in such as have spent their time jovially, peradventure in all honest recreations, in good company, in some great family or populous city, and are upon a sudden confined to a desert country cottage far off, restrained of their liberty, and barred from their ordinary associates; solitariness is very irksome to such, most tedious, and a sudden cause of great inconvenience.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The outline of the city became frantic in its effort to explain something that defied meaning.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

This defect is simply remedied by placing in front of the eye (Fig. 117 b ) a concave lens, to disperse the rays somewhat before they enter the eye, so that they come to a focus on the retina.
— from How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use by Archibald Williams

The king was encouraged to enlarge the expense; so that the spoils of Pometia, which had been destined to complete the work, scarcely sufficed for laying the foundation.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

exportar , to export; ——se , to be exported.
— from A First Spanish Reader by Erwin W. (Erwin William) Roessler

With his one eye the elder saw the opportunity.
— from White Fang by Jack London

But the merit, which will secure both to the book and to the writer a high and honourable name with posterity, consists in the masterly force of reasoning, and the copiousness of induction, with which he has assailed, and (in my opinion) subverted the tyranny of the mechanic system in physiology; established not only the existence of final causes, but their necessity and efficiency to every system that merits the name of philosophical; and, substituting life and progressive power for the contradictory inert force, has a right to be known and remembered as the first instaurator of the dynamic philosophy in England.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The writer has no criticism to pass upon this, except that experience shows that fastening two horses together by the head, and then going to their heels for the traces, often works badly.
— from Riding and Driving by Edward L. (Edward Lowell) Anderson

But the moon added a vague elusiveness to everything, softened the rigid outlines of the sheds, gave shadows to the lidless
— from Salomy Jane by Bret Harte

For him the crude experience is the only end, the endless struggle the only ideal, and the perturbed "Soul" the only organon of truth.
— from Interpretations of Poetry and Religion by George Santayana

The weather was chilly, windy, and rainy, especially towards evening, so that a fire was very welcome.
— from Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 1 by Wied, Maximilian, Prinz von

But as they descended they saw their brother-in-law hiding in the trunk and at first they tried to make him promise not to tell what he had seen, but he swore that he would let his brothers know all about it: so then they thought of killing him, but in the end the eldest said that this was not necessary and she fetched two iron nails and drove them into the soles of his feet whereupon he at once became a dog.
— from Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas

As it is the function of the orator to persuade and the physician to cure, and as they fail in their offices unless they effect these ends, so the poet fails unless he succeeds in pleasing.
— from A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance With special reference to the influence of Italy in the formation and development of modern classicism by Joel Elias Spingarn

'Madam,' answered the astrologer, 'they are to exorcise the evil spirit that possesses you, to shut him up in this pot, and throw him into the sea.'
— from Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights by E. Dixon

As Edda grew old enough to enter society, they took great pleasure in dressing her extravagantly, and accompanying her to every gay place of resort of the fashionable world.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850 by Various

It would have been easy to disguise the similarity by using them in different parts of the building; but on the contrary they are set edge to edge, so that the whole system of the architecture may be discovered at a glance by any one acquainted with the nature of the stones employed.
— from Stones of Venice [introductions] by John Ruskin