The ancient rails were very slight, and placed so close together as to be, according to modern notions, quite frivolous, if not dangerous in the extreme.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

CLEINIAS: How? ATHENIAN: Number like some other things is capable of being divided into equal parts; when thus divided, number is named 'even,' and the definition of the name 'even' is 'number divisible into two equal parts'? CLEINIAS: True. ATHENIAN: I mean, that when we are asked about the definition and give the name, or when we are asked about the name and give the definition—in either case, whether we give name or definition, we speak of the same thing, calling 'even' the number which is divided into two equal parts.
— from Laws by Plato

I found it not difficult, in the excitement of Mr. Chillip’s own brain, under his potations of negus, to divert his attention from this topic to his own affairs, on which, for the next half-hour, he was quite loquacious; giving me to understand, among other pieces of information, that he was then at the Gray’s Inn Coffee-house to lay his professional evidence before a Commission of Lunacy, touching the state of mind of a patient who had become deranged from excessive drinking.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

There is no distaste in beefsteak or in plums or in gallons of milk water, there is no defiance in original piling up over a roof, there is no daylight in the evening, there is none there empty.
— from Tender Buttons Objects—Food—Rooms by Gertrude Stein

Like all essentially light and frivolous natures, he cherished the singular point of honor which consists in never derogating in the eyes of one’s own little public, which makes men on the Bourse commit crimes to escape expulsion from the temple of the goddess Per-cent, and has given some criminals courage enough to perform acts of virtue.
— from The Muse of the Department by Honoré de Balzac

I note down in this everything I have to remember, both household matters and other things.
— from Royal Highness by Thomas Mann

There is no difficulty in the execution of this contract, because there is not a merchant who does not know, or may not know, the duty paid by every nation on every article.
— from The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9) Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private by Thomas Jefferson

Besides, the metre is not divisible into twelfths, eighths, sixths, or thirds, or the multiples of any of these proportions, two of which at least—the eighth and the third—are of as frequent use as any other fractions.
— from The Earth as Modified by Human Action by George P. (George Perkins) Marsh

The wing or wings of the one side can likewise be made to move independently of those of the opposite side, so that the centre of gravity, which, in insects, bats, and birds, is suspended, is not disturbed in the endless evolutions involved in ascending, descending, and wheeling.
— from Animal Locomotion; or, walking, swimming, and flying With a dissertation on aëronautics by James Bell Pettigrew

The so-called dancing of all Kafirs of Zulu race is not dancing in the European sense, but consists for the most part in stamping on the ground, swaying the body and gesticulating with sticks.
— from Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia Being a Narrative of Events in Matabeleland Both Before and During the Recent Native Insurrection Up to the Date of the Disbandment of the Bulawayo Field Force by Frederick Courteney Selous

Herrick dished his with fresh cream from his "little buttery":— "You see the cream but naked is, Nor dances in the eye Without a strawberry, Or some fine tincture like to this Which draws the sight thereto."
— from Concord Days by Amos Bronson Alcott

In the majority of cases they are transitional forms destined very shortly to become telotrochal, and in such instances they usually have a more or less spherical body which is nearly divided into two equal halves by a ciliated ring.
— from The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 2 (of 4) A Treatise on Comparative Embryology: Invertebrata by Francis M. (Francis Maitland) Balfour

In waters where it coexists with the small-mouth bass there is no difference in their excellence as food-fish.
— from Bass, Pike, Perch, and Others by James A. (James Alexander) Henshall