Lycurgus, I say, saw all this, and accordingly combined together all the excellences and distinctive features of the best constitutions, that no part should become unduly predominant, and be perverted into its kindred vice; and that, each power being checked by the others, no one part should turn the scale or decisively out-balance the others; but that, by being accurately adjusted and in exact equilibrium, the whole might remain long steady like a ship sailing close to the wind.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius

The earth was like a swinging swaying censer, a ball of incense, an ellipsoidal ball.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

If we must needs pry closely into the matter, it may be doubted whether there was any real change, after all, in the sordid, wornout worthless, and ill-jointed substance of the scarecrow; but merely a spectral illusion, and a cunning effect of light and shade so colored and contrived as to delude the eyes of most men.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Of course I was to some extent anxious lest another squall should come, but I made the best provision I could in the circumstances, and concluded that by letting go the weather-braces of the top-sails and the top-sail halyards at the same time, I should thereby render these sails almost powerless.
— from The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

The air was bitterly cold, for the wind was from the north and a sharp frost had set in, and Jack feared lest a snowstorm should come on and impede his progress.
— from John Deane of Nottingham: Historic Adventures by Land and Sea by William Henry Giles Kingston

Sheet-lightning—covering the sky like a sheet, sometimes called heat lightning—a common phenomenon in prairie storms.
— from The Song of Hugh Glass by John G. Neihardt

Rhoda went out on the landing and said softly, "Come up to her, father."
— from Rhoda Fleming — Volume 5 by George Meredith

At Hardwick there are both long and short stools, carved with the dolphin's scroll and covered with elaborate stuffs.
— from The House in Good Taste by Elsie De Wolfe

Behind this English line are several small copses, on ground which very gently rises towards the crest of the plateau a mile to the west.
— from The Old Front Line by John Masefield

Nevertheless, in a long and strenuous sporting career the Invigorator became endeared through association to many friends.
— from The Killer by Stewart Edward White