He realized that the masses of his countrymen were sunk deep in poverty and ignorance, cringing and crouching before political authority, crawling and groveling before religious superstition, but to him this was no subject for jest or indifferent neglect—it was a serious condition which should be ameliorated, and hope lay in working into the inert social mass the leaven of conscious individual effort toward the development of a distinctive, responsible personality.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal

He was dressed in a short jacket of inferior nankin.
— from White Nights and Other Stories The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Volume X by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The sea-snails best known on the coast north of Chesapeake Bay are the whelk (Buccinum: see Fig. 2), the sand snail or Natica, which bores the round holes often found in clam shells on the beach, in order to suck the juices of its neighbors, and the various kinds of periwinkles (rock snails or Littorina) found by the millions on the rocks between tides.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

Under the jib only, I now boomed along before the wind, shipping heavy seas occasionally over the counter, but relieved from the terror of immediate death.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

He could not remember taking special interest in the railroad journey or in New York; with railways and cities he was familiar enough.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

The inscription ran as follows, and the impartial reader can judge of its nature: “Deo. opt.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Among these are the Triumpilini, a people who were sold 1932 with their territory; and then the Camuni, and several similar tribes, each of them in the jurisdiction of its neighbouring municipal town.
— from The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 1 (of 6) by the Elder Pliny

And such had been the opinion of Moses, as a translator of Herodotus (M. Archer of the Academy of Inscriptions) justly observes in note 389 of the second book; where he says also that the immortality of the soul was not introduced among the Hebrews till their intercourse with the Assyrians.
— from The Ruins; Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature by C.-F. (Constantin-François) Volney

The donkey wanted the hay, but he couldn't swim over the river, jump over it, nor cross the bridge.
— from Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 by E. W. (Edward William) Cole

The shores are high and irregular and jut out in narrow points, and these and the islands have small cliffs, of gnarled and twisted strata, which the hemlocks overhang, in masses of feathery green.
— from A Northern Countryside by Rosalind Richards

Yet only the fifth order of [55] the acotyledones of Jussieu occurs in numbers; of the Fungi, Algæ, Hepaticæ, and Musci, the individuals are remarkably infrequent.
— from The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2 by George Finlayson

The whole erection was so steady and well made that, though Father, as chief inspector, stamped vigorously about, he could not make it shake, and was able to pass it as perfectly safe, and give his congratulations to the young architect, while even Joe grudgingly admitted that 'Master Forster hadn't made half a bad job of it neither.'
— from A Terrible Tomboy by Angela Brazil

But any one who judges of institutions not by words but by facts will perceive that in one way or another the influence and the wishes of the British Government were represented more than sufficiently in the Irish Houses of Parliament.
— from A Leap in the Dark A Criticism of the Principles of Home Rule as Illustrated by the Bill of 1893 by Albert Venn Dicey

In the other he is not only the judge of the events specified in the bill, but also of the degree of commerce to be permitted, of the place from which and to which it is to be allowed; he is the judge of its nature, and has the power to impose whatever regulation he pleases.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16) by United States. Congress

They ascended the river, leaving no token of their passage at the junction of its northern and southern branches.
— from France and England in North America, Part III: La Salle, Discovery of The Great West by Francis Parkman

If, personally, the Lord God was with the patriarchs, and would take a calf and a cake in the love of hospitality--if, in the sight of the whole congregation, He would let the glory fill the temple courts in the joy of its new-found habitation--if, in "the Man Christ Jesus," the Lord God would walk with us, and share our seasons of rest and labour and refreshment, talking at a well with one elect sinner, or letting another press His bosom at supper, and ask Him about the secrets that were in that bosom--in this present day He has us, in the thoughts and affections of His own heart, up in heaven with Himself, and the Holy Ghost is here with us, in the midst of the thoughts and affections of our hearts.
— from The Patriarchs Being Meditations upon Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job; The Canticles, Heaven and Earth. by J. G. (John Gifford) Bellett