That varieties of this doubtful nature are far from uncommon cannot be disputed.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

He then at several times thought to fall upon Caius, even as he was feasting; yet did he restrain himself by some considerations; not that he had any doubt on him about killing him, but as watching for a proper season, that the attempt might not be frustrated, but that he might give the blow so as might certainly gain his purpose.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

The language of the note recalls the agitation in the public mind at Niagara in 1796, on the subject of the seat of Government for Upper Canada—a question that has since agitated Canada in several of its sub-sections.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

For whoever will consider the age at which he began his enterprises, the small means by which he effected so glorious a design, the authority he obtained in such mere youth with the greatest and most experienced captains of the world, by whom he was followed, the extraordinary favour wherewith fortune embraced and favoured so many hazardous, not to say rash, exploits, “Impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti Obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruins;” [“Bearing down all who sought to withstand him, and pleased to force his way by ruin.”—Lucan, i. 149.] that greatness, to have at the age of three-and-thirty years, passed victorious through the whole habitable earth, and in half a life to have attained to the utmost of what human nature can do; so that you cannot imagine its just duration and the continuation of his increase in valour and fortune, up to a due maturity of age, but that you must withal imagine something more than man: to have made so many royal branches to spring from his soldiers, leaving the world, at his death, divided amongst four successors, simple captains of his army, whose posterity so long continued and maintained that vast possession; so many excellent virtues as he was master of, justice, temperance, liberality, truth in his word, love towards his own people, and humanity towards those he overcame; for his manners, in general, seem in truth incapable of any manner of reproach, although some particular and extraordinary actions of his may fall under censure.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

In order to keep your work perfectly clean and preserve it from unnecessary contact with your fingers, cover all those parts of the pattern you are not immediately engaged on, with a piece of blue paper with a hole, about the size of a pea, cut in it.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

Now, the operative art having, for us , ceased, we, as speculative Masons, symbolize the labors of our predecessors by engaging in the construction of a spiritual temple in our hearts, pure and spotless, fit for the dwelling-place of Him who is the author of purity—where God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and whence every evil thought and unruly passion is to be banished, as the sinner and the Gentile were excluded from the sanctuary of the Jewish temple.
— from The Symbolism of Freemasonry Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols by Albert Gallatin Mackey

The strangers left and went farther up country, and shortly after only three of them returned and stated that a tiger had just been killed, and they begged the local headman to bury it.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

“I was sitting by him one night and he suddenly told me: ‘Father, when my grave is filled up crumble a piece of bread on it so that the sparrows may fly down, I shall hear and it will cheer me up not to be lying alone.’ ”
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Of that broad, liberal view, of that famed universal culture, which the classical curriculum is supposed to yield, serious words need not be lost.
— from Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach

H2 anchor CHAPTER VI I make great progress in my Studies—am caressed by Everybody—my female Cousins take notice of me—I reject their Invitation—they are incensed, and conspire against me—am left destitute by a Misfortune that befalls my Uncle-Gawky's Treachery—my Revenge As I was now capable of reflection, I began to consider my precarious situation; that I was utterly abandoned by those whose duty it was to protect me: and that my sole dependence was on the generosity of one man, who was not only exposed by his profession to continual dangers, which might one day deprive me of him for ever; but also (no doubt) subject to those vicissitudes of disposition which a change of fortune usually creates, or which a better acquaintance with the world might produce; for I always ascribed his benevolence to the dictates of a heart as yet undebauched by a commerce with mankind.
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Class No. 1 is formed, under certain circumstances, from those original organizations which possess at birth strong moral and weak intellectual faculties....
— from A Short History of Freethought Ancient and Modern, Volume 2 of 2 Third edition, Revised and Expanded, in two volumes by J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson

September-night shades had fallen upon Casterbridge; the clocks had struck half-past eight, and the moon had risen.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

The hills in front, and the river at their feet, with lands consisting of farms under cultivation, and so much land cleared belonging to Broom, reminded me of places seen in England.
— from The Golden South: Memories of Australian Home Life from 1843 to 1888 by Kathleen Lambert

"You can see the sea from there in clear weather; and many's the time in the war I've heard the guns in France from Upper Crowbury of a still night.
— from The Green Eyes of Bâst by Sax Rohmer

The carbonate and sulphate of strontia melt with soda upon platinum foil to a bead, which is milk-white when cold, but fused upon charcoal they are absorbed.
— from A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe Being A Graduated Course Of Analysis For The Use Of Students And All Those Engaged In The Examination Of Metallic Combinations by Anonymous

For uncounted centuries before ever hearing of Gravitation men knew of the sun that he rose and set, of the moon that she waxed and waned, of the tides that they flowed and ebbed, all regularly, at times to be predicted; of the stars that they swung as by clockwork around the pole.
— from On The Art of Reading by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Good Mr. Evans, the vicar, preached her funeral sermon, only as last Sunday, amplifying the idea that she "was cut off in the midst of her days:" and thereby encouraging many of the simpler folks, who knew that Mrs. Quarles had long passed seventy, in the luminous notion that [Pg 028] house-keepers in great establishments are privileged, among other undoubted perquisites, to live to a hundred and forty, unless cut off by apoplexy or murder.
— from The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper by Martin Farquhar Tupper

No knowing what princes in disguise, as well as anarchists and nihilists and other objectionably interesting persons, may be discovered when the time for unmasking comes.
— from The Gentle Reader by Samuel McChord Crothers