He would know obscure things, hidden from others, from those who were conceived and born children of wrath.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

When dialectic is thus introduced into psychology, an intensive knowledge of the heart is given out for distributive knowledge of events.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

St. Germain often dined with the best society in the capital, but he never ate anything, saying that he was kept alive by mysterious food known only to himself.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Corresponding to these are the stories related by Herodotus of the overthrow of the kingdom of the Heraclidæ and freedom of the Greeks, through the revenge of the Queen, ‘the most beautiful of women,’ upon her husband Candaules for having contrived that Gyges [ 410 ] should see her naked.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

It opened into the house, where the females were already astir; Zillah urging flakes of flame up the chimney with a colossal bellows; and Mrs. Heathcliff, kneeling on the hearth, reading a book by the aid of the blaze.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Now when the king of the Hebrews understood that the Ammonites had again gathered so great an army together, he determined to make war with them no longer by his generals, but he passed over the river Jordan himself with all his army; and when he met them he joined battle with them, and overcame them, and slew forty thousand of their footmen, and seven thousand of their horsemen.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

At Berlin, he declaimed against the ignorance, the superstition and the knavery of the Hebrews to whom I had addressed him, drawing meanwhile, for the money they claimed of him, bills of exchange on the Count who laughed, paid, and embraced him when he returned.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This was a dangerous enterprise, for the king of Taurica had a practice of sacrificing in that very temple any foreigners found in his country.
— from The Story of Troy by Michael Clarke

Then said Sigvat to Thord, "What wilt thou rather do, comrade, waken the king, or tell him the tidings?
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

As you know to your cost, the King of the Hamadian desert is able to defend himself and his people, even from the insults of a great power."
— from The Phantom Airman by Rowland Walker

Some indication of this may be gathered from the fact that at Rushy Lock, where there is a fine weir and pool, we had the pleasure of being our own lock keeper, opening the heavy gates, letting in the water, and releasing ourselves.
— from Rivers of Great Britain. The Thames, from Source to Sea. Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial by Various

Even now, he breathed, in memory, [82] the heavy odour of the magnolia blossoms which overhung the long wooden porch bench or "jogging board" on which the lady sat, while he knelt on the hard floor before her.
— from The Colonel's Dream by Charles W. (Charles Waddell) Chesnutt

His accurate knowledge of the history of all countries and times was a marvel, and, all at his instant command, placed him upon rare vantage ground in the many forensic struggles in which he took part.
— from Something of Men I Have Known With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective by Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing) Stevenson

The advent of spraying and of better knowledge of the habits of the pests has greatly lessened the importance of parasites as a factor in determining the value of a region for grape-growing; but even in the light of the new knowledge, it is not wise to go against Nature in regions where pests are strongly intrenched.
— from Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick

When we left Cuba, we put ourselves in the keeping of the Holy Virgin, without any certain purpose.
— from The Fair God; or, The Last of the 'Tzins: A Tale of the Conquest of Mexico by Lew Wallace

After this she was led to a seat upon an outspread sheepskin, and Pudens handed to her the keys of the house.
— from Darkness and Dawn; Or, Scenes in the Days of Nero. An Historic Tale by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar

The fire was always kindled on the hearth, the lamp serenely burning.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various