The discipline was strict but not harassing; it was exercised with unrelenting vigour when the soldier was in presence of the enemy; at other times, especially after victory, the reins were relaxed, and if an otherwise efficient soldier was then pleased to indulge in perfumery or to deck himself with elegant arms and the like, or even if he allowed himself to be guilty of outrages or irregularities of a very questionable kind, provided only his military duties were not immediately affected, the foolery and the crime were allowed to pass, and the general lent a deaf ear to the complaints of the provincials on such points.
— from The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) by Theodor Mommsen

He had the affectations of a governor: he opened his mouth long before he began to speak, and having said a word he gave a long growl like a dog, “er-r-r.”
— from Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

A deep red glow was over everything, growing lighter and duller every few moments as the stokers would open a furnace door, shovel in some coal, and slam the door to again.
— from Billy Bounce by W. W. (William Wallace) Denslow

Marcus Aurelius's face to welcome us on board was enough to rejuvenate anyone, simply a full moon of black and white smiles, and I am sure he is the first person Merécdès has confided her love affair to, for he seems to watch over her and Gaston like a deus ex machina.
— from Elizabeth Visits America by Elinor Glyn

He saw the real, natural course of things—he heard in a few hours the result of the experience of a man of great vivacity, great talents, who had led a life of pleasure, and who had had opportunities of seeing and feeling all that it could possibly afford, at the period of the greatest luxury and dissipation ever known in France.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 09 by Maria Edgeworth

My dear Falconer ,—I have just received your note, and by good luck a day earlier than properly, and I lose not a moment
— from Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters by Charles Darwin

—When a voltaic battery of 100 pairs of plates has its extremities examined by the ordinary electrometer, it is well known that they are found positive and negative, the gold leaves at the same extremity repelling each other, the gold leaves at different extremities attracting each other, even when half an inch or more of air intervenes.
— from Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 by Michael Faraday

Now even that was gone, leaving a desert enveloped in pitchy darkness, while the wind roared about the ears of the travellers and pounded their bodies as with cudgels and the sand pelted their skins.
— from The Delafield Affair by Florence Finch Kelly