I walked down to the middle fork and examined and compared it with the S. W. fork but could not satisfy myself which was the largest stream of the two, in fact they appeared as if they had been cast in the same mould there being no difference in character or size, therefore to call either of these streams the Missouri would be giving it a preference wich it's size dose not warrant as it is not larger then the other.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

This was always followed by Collins's Ode on the Passions, wherein I particularly venerated Mr. Wopsle as Revenge throwing his blood-stained sword in thunder down, and taking the War-denouncing trumpet with a withering look.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

“Soriteses”, will, I fear, be condemned as “bad English”, unless I say a word in its defence.
— from Symbolic Logic by Lewis Carroll

I WOULD not give a groat for that man’s knowledge in pen-craft, who does not understand this,——That the best plain narrative in the world, tacked very close to the last spirited apostrophe to my uncle Toby ——would have felt both cold and vapid upon the reader’s pa- 157
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Yes, worse: for all that man ever won of courage or moral freedom, by conquering his dragons in detail, he surrenders again to the phantom-forces they typified when he gives up his mind to belief in a power not himself that makes for evil.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

"Your objection is a just one, if you like, and might indeed serve as a ground for carrying the matter further; but consider again, that if with the arrival of living crocodiles government clerks begin to disappear, and then on the ground that they are warm and comfortable there, expect to receive the official sanction for their position, and then take their ease there ...
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

No future contracts are valid unless they are made in the following form: Brazilian Coffee—Not Santos Office of _____________
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

In this whole connection it appears that the group consciousness and the individual himself are formed by communication and participation, and that the communication and participation are themselves dependent for their meaning on common interests.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

reason, ground, call, principle; by end, by purpose; mainspring, primum mobile[Lat], keystone; the why and the wherefore; pro and con, reason why; secret motive, arriere pensee[Fr]; intention &c. 620. inducement, consideration; attraction; loadstone; magnet, magnetism, magnetic force; allectation|, allective|; temptation, enticement, agacerie[obs3], allurement, witchery; bewitchment, bewitchery; charm; spell &c. 993; fascination, blandishment, cajolery; seduction, seducement; honeyed words, voice of the tempter, song of the Sirens forbidden fruit, golden apple.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

So gravely had the farce been carried on that I almost laughed, despite the fact that the matter in question was a serious one for me.
— from Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

Describing her charms, another chronicler says: "She was of a lovely height, with dark brown hair and eyebrows, black sparkling eyes, and a fresh blushing complexion; and, whenever she exerted herself, had an involuntary flushing in her breast, neck, and face."
— from Love Romances of the Aristocracy by Thornton Hall

The lines wavered and broke; knights and nobles fell back; confusion began and was increasing; the odds appeared too great; for a brief and perilous period the battle seemed lost.
— from Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 06 (of 15), French by Charles Morris

I see the sunshine and freedom beyond, and buzz up and down their pages, ever hopeful to get through them to the fresh air without, but ever kept back by a mysterious something, which I feel but cannot either grasp or see.
— from The Humour of Homer and Other Essays by Samuel Butler

The remains, now used as farm buildings, consist of a church, a chantry, a court-room, and a barn.
— from Somerset by J. H. (Joseph Henry) Wade

If I had known her only as Cowper did—with a child's recollection—there might have been some thread, some faint but comprehensible link, between us; but now all that I felt was the curious incongruity.
— from Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, March 1885 by Various

Here was a sap that once stretched across No Man's Land, there was a front line, and further back, crawling through holt and hamlet, all that remained of a communication trench could be dimly discerned.
— from The Diggers: The Australians in France by Patrick MacGill

The masts and barges of other Colleges line the side of the river, and Folly Bridge closes the prospect.
— from Oxford by Edward Thomas

And indeed he was so very tall, that it seemed as if the sound, sent feebly from below, could not ascend [Pg 580] to such a height.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers