I say, then, that in these and other respects our gallant Don Quixote is worthy of everlasting and notable praise, nor should it be withheld even from me for the labour and pains spent in searching for the conclusion of this delightful history; though I know well that if Heaven, chance and good fortune had not helped me, the world would have remained deprived of an entertainment and pleasure that for a couple of hours or so may well occupy him who shall read it attentively. — from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Wonderful it is if only these last have had the same parentage—still more if they have had the same parentage, too, with forms so utterly different from them as the prickly-stemmed scarlet-flowered Euphorbia common in our hothouses; as the huge succulent cactus-like Euphorbia of the Canary Islands; as the gale-like Phyllanthus; the many-formed Crotons, which in the West Indies alone comprise, according to Griesbach, at least twelve genera and thirty species; the hemp-like Maniocs, Physic-nuts, Castor-oils; the scarlet Poinsettia which adorns dinner-tables in winter; the pretty little pink and yellow Dalechampia, now common in hothouses; the Manchineel, with its glossy poplar-like leaves; and this very Hura, with leaves still more like a poplar, and a fruit which differs from most of its family in having not three but many divisions, usually a multiple of three up to fifteen; a fruit which it is difficult to obtain, even where the tree is plentiful: for hanging at the end of long branches, it bursts when ripe with a crack like a pistol, scattering its seeds far and wide: from whence its name of Hura crepitans. — from At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies by Charles Kingsley
life and poorer still in spirit
His name had never reached the surrounding nations; his own nation knew him not, unless it was as a weak and imbecile man: he was poor in every thing that constitutes the riches of Indian life, and poorer still in spirit and acquirements. — from Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 by James Athearn Jones
long and persistently sought it she
The young man, however, was not satisfied that she should be a servant to him, and, after he had long and persistently sought it, she consented to be married, on the one condition, that, if ever he should touch her with iron, she would be free to leave him and return to her family. — from Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (Volume 1 of 2) by Rhys, John, Sir
In January, 1885, migration was under personal charge of President John Taylor, who, after a notable conference at St. David, as noted in the history of that section, led a party southward into Sonora and held a satisfactory conference with Governor Torres, yet made no settlement. — from Mormon Settlement in Arizona
A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert by James H. McClintock
[248] On the 12th of June, the convention adopted without a dissenting voice its celebrated “declaration of rights,” a compact, luminous, and powerful statement, in sixteen articles, of those great fundamental rights that were henceforth to be “the basis and foundation of government” in Virginia, and were to stamp their character upon that constitution on which the committee were even then engaged. — from Patrick Henry by Moses Coit Tyler
like a pendulum swung in space
Azara, describing a small finch, which he aptly named Oscilador, says that early and late in the day it mounts up vertically to a moderate height; then, flies off to a distance of twenty yards, describing a perfect curve in its passage; turning, it flies back over the imaginary line it has traced, and so on repeatedly, appearing like a pendulum swung in space by an invisible thread. — from The Naturalist in La Plata by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson
This tab, called Hiding in Plain Sight,
shows you passages from notable books where your word is accidentally (or perhaps deliberately?)
spelled out by the first letters of consecutive words.
Why would you care to know such a thing? It's not entirely clear to us, either, but
it's fun to explore! What's the longest hidden word you can find? Where is your name hiding?