Nelson said, "That his admirals and captains, knowing his precise object to be that of a close and decisive action, would supply any deficiency of signals, and act accordingly.
— from The Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson by Robert Southey

Graham would have started had any suggestive spirit whispered of the sinew and the stamina sustaining that delicate nature; but I who had known her as a child, knew or guessed by what a good and strong root her graces held to the firm soil of reality.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë

The precepts of eloquence, which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics of declamation, were more usefully applied to excite or to assuage the passions of an armed multitude: and although Julian, from his early habits of conversation and literature, was more familiarly acquainted with the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue.
— 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

I started at once on the publication of a pianoforte arrangement of Tannhauser, preparing it myself while Rockel undertook the Fliegender Hollander, and a certain Klink did Rienzi.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge both of French and Italian, I do not know; but he was so well skilled in them, as to be sufficiently qualified for a translator.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson Abridged and edited, with an introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood by James Boswell

Twenty-eight feet above the pavement, over the horseshoe arch, a cabalistic key and a gigantic hand are carved on two stones.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole

The earliest step, however, towards making Europe acquainted with actual Sanskrit writings was taken by Charles Wilkins, who, having, at the instigation of Warren Hastings, acquired a considerable knowledge of Sanskrit at Benares, published in 1785 a translation of the Bhagavad-gītā , or The Song of the Adorable One , and two years [ 3 ] later, a version of the well-known collection of fables entitled Hitopadeça , or Friendly Advice .
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

In this manner had he proceeded for the space of ten months, during which he acquired a competent knowledge of the city of Paris, when his curiosity was attracted by certain peculiarities in the appearance of a man who lived in one of the upper apartments belonging to the house in which he himself had fixed his habitation.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

I did not, like him, attempt a critical knowledge of their dialects, for I did not contemplate making any other use of them than temporary amusement.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

He spoke Abner’s own speech, he knew the streets that were familiar to him, and a common knowledge of distant places is a greater bond between men than a common knowledge of their fellows.
— from The Black Diamond by Francis Brett Young

He showed a remarkable taste for natural history, and acquired considerable knowledge of the use of drugs; but he soon tired of the discipline and escaped.
— from The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by M. M. Pattison (Matthew Moncrieff Pattison) Muir

The Wolverhampton man declared that it was dangerous to British lungs to be out in these raw mornings in a foreign country without something warm to qualify the air; so a bottle of brandy was sent for to the neighboring café , and our hostess had busied herself in producing hot water and tumblers, as if, through the frequenters of executions, she had arrived at considerable knowledge of the national tastes.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851 by Various

The chief whom they had so long trusted, and whose oath to fight on Irish soil before January, '67, they had seen so unblushingly violated, was deposed by the last section of his adherents, and Colonel Kelly was elected "Deputy Central Organiser of the Irish Republic," on the distinct understanding that he was to follow out the policy which Stephens had shrunk from pursuing.
— from The Dock and the Scaffold The Manchester Tragedy and the Cruise of the Jacknell by T. D. (Timothy Daniel) Sullivan

But the elder sister, having begun tormenting her, seems to have determined to keep her hold on her, as a cat keeps and tortures a mouse—mainly for the sake of annoying the man of whom she was jealous.
— from Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

He was to fight in many a war with the cousin who then made him a knight; but neither of them, though failing to lead moral lives, ever failed to acquit himself as a chivalrous knight.
— from The Story of the Nations: Portugal by H. Morse (Henry Morse) Stephens

The death of Alfred king Edgars wife (or concubine) causeth him to fall into a fowle offense, an example teaching men to take heed how they put others in trust to woo for them; earle Ethelwold cooseneth the king of his wife, the danger of beholding a womans beautie with lustfull eies; king Edgar killeth earle Ethelwold to marrie faire Alfred his wife; the bloudie and unnaturall speach of Ethelwolds base sonne: examples of king Edgars great incontinencie and lewd life; Dunstane putteth the king to penance for his vnchastitie, the Welshmen rebell against him and are corrected, king Edgars vision before his death, of what religious buildings he was founder, his example a spur to others to doo the like, moonks esteemed and secular priests little regarded, king Edgars deformed reformation, his vices, stature, and bodilie qualities, he offereth to fight hand to hand with Kinadius king of Scots vpon occasion of words euill taken, Kinadius submitteth himselfe and is pardoned; his wiues and children, the good state of the realme in king Edgars time, the amplenesse of his dominions.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

Her novels are marked by ease, humour, and a complete knowledge of the domestic life of the English middle classes of her time.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Atrebates to Bedlis Vol. 1 Part 3 by Various

His nature prompted him to take her in his arms, to kiss her as a child kisses, full on the lips, with a full heart.
— from The Teeth of the Tiger by Maurice Leblanc

He takes no notice of Columbus, and pays him no honour, although honour is paid to himself as a captive king.
— from Christopher Columbus and the New World of His Discovery — Complete by Filson Young