How indeed can we be conscious of a power to move our limbs, when we have no such power; but only that to move certain animal spirits, which, though they produce at last the motion of our limbs, yet operate in such a manner as is wholly beyond our comprehension?
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

Once more, still himself in his bearing, but under sadly altered surroundings, will this simple and heroic man come before us; and here, in contrast with his glory, seems a proper place to insert a little description by the Comte de Guiche
— from The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

The contrast of the British judicial system with the Spanish tribunals was also a revelation, for the foulest blot upon the colonial administration of Spain was her iniquitous courts of justice, and this was especially true of the Philippines.
— from Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot by Austin Craig

Gregorii II.,) who tells a miraculous story of three consecrated sponges, which rendered invulnerable the French soldiers, among whom they had been shared It should seem, that in his letters to the pope, Eudes usurped the honor of the victory, from which he is chastised by the French annalists, who, with equal falsehood, accuse him of inviting the Saracens.
— 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

The more she tried to think of something anything besides the danger to which Frederick would be exposed—the more closely her imagination clung to the unfortunate idea presented to her.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

I have been the dupe of it, but no matter; that talent of yours does exist, it is wonderful, divine, I admire it, I love it, and the highest homage I can render to it is, in my estimation, to foster for the possessor of it the purest feelings of friendship.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

I don’t know any act of parliament that’s equal to him in clearness.’
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

It was but a year since the young Cornet, now so knowing a hand in Cribb's parlour, had a still lingering liking for toffy, and used to be birched at Eton.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

His friends would assure him they quite understood his difficulties: it was next to impossible to get a decent house in Calcutta.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

"The herb, with a decoction of which they dye their nails and hands, is called by the Arabs El Henna : it imparts a coolness and softness to the hands, and diminishes the excessive perspiration incident to warm climates.
— from An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa by Shabeeny, Abd Salam, active 1820

Though we should see our utter wickedness, and how truly we deserve to be in hell, and think that both God and man must despise and abhor us; yet, if this be a true humility, it comes with a certain sweetness and satisfaction attending it.
— from Santa Teresa: An Appreciation With Some of the Best Passages of the Saint's Writings by Alexander Whyte

He knew that if the authorities got wind of this it might go hard with him, for if he were suspected of being a member of a lodge of the White Saber or the Red Hand, it could mean imprisonment, perhaps death; so he paid the revolution something to move on and occur on some other man’s land.
— from Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate by Charles M. (Charles Montgomery) Skinner

And, of course, every one is very nice to him in consequence.
— from The Swindler and Other Stories by Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell

However, in Cairo and more still in Alexandria, all is quite different.
— from Letters from Egypt by Duff Gordon, Lucie, Lady

Against these we might set a vast company of witnesses, exceeding those on the opposite side by full a hundred to one; yet because Cod. A and the Latin Vulgate alone are on Lachmann's list, he is compelled by his system to place ἐνδύσαντες in the text as the reading of his authorities, reserving to himself the privilege of removing it on the ground of its palpable impropriety: and all this because he wishes to keep the “recensio” of the text distinct from the “emendatio” of the sense (Praef. 1850, p. vi).
— from A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener

Day by day, indeed, John Fletcher lost himself in the needs and spirit of his Master, finding in his increasingly clear view of God, his ever more intimate fellowship with Christ, abiding treasure and keen delight which were beyond even his power of felicitous expression It was in keeping with his hourly experience that he exclaimed in a letter to Lady Mary Fitzgerald :—­ “Who are we, my lady, that we should not be swallowed up by the holy, loving, living Spirit, who fills Heaven and earth?
— from Fletcher of Madeley by Margaret Allen

His sin thus purged (how exquisitely wrought out the lovely simile of the sun-cleansed wool!), he is “caught up in the whirl and drift of the vesture’s amplitude,” and thus clinging to the garment’s hem, is carried across land and sea—to a scene so complete a contrast to the one he has just left that he is confused, and some time elapses before he discovers that he is in front of St. Peter’s at Rome:— 109 X.
— from Pomegranates from an English Garden A selection from the poems of Robert Browning by Robert Browning

This highway is continued along the shores of the Black Sea, where there are several commercial harbours, the most important being Burgas, a great grain port.
— from The Earth and its inhabitants, Volume 1: Europe. Greece, Turkey in Europe, Rumania, Servia, Montenegro, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. by Elisée Reclus