And to judge by the Erasistratean argument, there must be countless other useless structures; for, if he knows nothing at all about these structures, he has little more anatomical knowledge than a butcher, while, if he is acquainted with them and yet does not state their use, he clearly imagines that they were made for no purpose, like the spleen.
— from Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen

[50] In a few moments Ambrose knew that a bitter herb compound would be poured down his reluctant throat; later he might be placed in bed between hot blankets and more sweat drawn from his lean frame.
— from The Loves of Ambrose by Margaret Vandercook

When Thorg set his men on me to hunt me, he cast himself before me, and kept them at bay until you came!"
— from The Missing Bride by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

He passed in, and as he did so his back grazed a small twig which had been thrust down through a hole in the ice, and the watching Indians saw it move, and knew that a beaver had entered the trap.
— from Forest Neighbors: Life Stories of Wild Animals by William Davenport Hulbert

In order to handle the unit with intelligence and efficiency, utilizing to the greatest extent possible the power of all the rifles under his command, not only must the commander be able to control the unit, having it respond at once to his every command, but he must also know tactics, and be thoroughly familiar with the technical principles of infantry fire.
— from Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by James A. (James Alfred) Moss

D' mother an' kid takes a back-room in our tenement; an' after dey gets 'quainted, she tells me Rag about her man dyin'.
— from Sandburrs by Alfred Henry Lewis

I will allow you to think me madder than Don Quixote when I confess I am governed by the que-dira-t-on of these things, though I remember whereof they are made, and know they are but dust.
— from Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) by Lewis Melville

He ruled over the company of beavers who made up his particular colony in the wisest manner, and kept them all busy, which is a trait of the beaver family.
— from The Three Bears of Porcupine Ridge by Jean M. (Jean May) Thompson

They usually ordered all the people to come out to an open space on the plain, and there, after taking out all the young and able-bodied men, who could be made useful in bringing stones and setting up engines, and other such labors, and also all the young and beautiful women, to be divided among the army or sold as slaves, they would put the rest together in a mass, and kill them all by shooting at them with arrows, just as if they had been beasts surrounded in a chase, excepting that the excitement and pleasure of shooting into such a mass of human victims, and of hearing the shrieks and cries of their [Pg 314] terror, was probably infinitely greater to their brutal murderers than if it had been a herd of lions, tigers, and wolves that they were destroying.
— from Genghis Khan, Makers of History Series by Jacob Abbott