The source of its fertility is of course the river, and you can walk for miles among lanes and cultivated ground, partially sheltered from the sun."
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

His adversaries unwillingly consenting, a blind man of the English race was brought, who having been presented to the British bishops, found no benefit or healing from their ministry; at length, Augustine, compelled by strict necessity, bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying that He would restore his lost sight to the blind man, and by the bodily enlightenment of one kindle the grace of spiritual light in the hearts of many of the faithful.
— from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Bede, the Venerable, Saint

I was sitting all alone, wishing I knew more of the members, and suddenly he came, a great rolling front of chins and abdomina, towards me, and grunted and sat down in a chair close by me and wheezed for a space, and scraped for a space with a match and lit a cigar, and then addressed me.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE “SATYRICON” Affairs start to go wrong, your friends will stand from under Believes, on the spot, every tale Boys play in the schools, the young men are laughed at Cardinals prejudiced in favor of Greek love Death is never far from those who seek him Death levels caste and sufferers unites Deferred pleasures are a long time coming
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter

Severe haircut lady was in the new questioning party, as were three big guys who moved me around like a cut of meat.
— from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Only the communities mentioned, however, carry it on, and they only are in possession of a system of elaborate magic, at least as complex as that of the kaloma .
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

“You must act like a civilized human being,” Kennon said mildly.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone

He also projected a most spacious theatre adjacent to the Tarpeian mount; and also proposed to reduce the civil law to a reasonable compass, and out of that immense and undigested mass of statutes to extract the best and most necessary parts into a few books; to make as large a collection as possible of works in the Greek and Latin languages, for the public use; the province of providing and putting them in proper order being assigned to Marcus Varro.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

He occupied a chair at the opposite side of the apartment, and sat eyeing our party with interest for some minutes, and listening as critically to what we were saying as if he fancied we were talking to him and expecting him to reply.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

Provisional Arrangement of the Affairs of the Capital The Provinces Without further concerning himself about the senate and the formalities of state law, he handed over the temporary administration of the capital to the praetor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus as city-prefect, and made the requisite arrangements for the administration of the provinces that obeyed him and the continuance of the war.
— from The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) by Theodor Mommsen

We got a pole under him to pry him out; at the same time the horse made a leap, and came out safe and sound.
— from History of the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario,) with special reference to the Bay Quinté by William Canniff

Filmore Durand glanced from one to another of the three in quick succession, stroked his rather bristly moustache, and lit a cigarette, not because he wanted to smoke, but because he could not help it, which is a very different thing.
— from The White Sister by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

The Didaché , about A.D. 100, shows acquaintance with Matt. and Luke, and contains early Eucharistic prayers of which the language closely resembles the language of St. John.
— from The Books of the New Testament by Leighton Pullan

Next morning, as Lucien and Coralie sat at breakfast, a carriage drove along the Rue de Vendome.
— from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honoré de Balzac

He died mad at last at Charenton, did not know Latude, who went to see him, and told everyone that he was God.
— from Denounced: A Romance by John Bloundelle-Burton

Under the domination of his masterful pride, which was both the strength and the weakness of Graham’s character, making him capable of the most absolute loyalty, and capable of the 74 most inexcusable deeds, a pride no friend could guide, and no adversity could break, Claverhouse fell into a fit of silent anger with himself, with MacKay, with his absent critics, with the Prince.
— from Graham of Claverhouse by Ian Maclaren

Beacon-fires were to be seen along the highest peaks of the sierra, throwing their ominous glare around for many a league, and calling the bold mountaineers to the foray.
— from History of the Reign of Philip the Second King of Spain, Vol. 3 And Biographical & Critical Miscellanies by William Hickling Prescott

The Board was made up of eight business men and lawyers and concerned itself mainly with the financial problems of the University.
— from Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati by Warren Crocker Herrick