As the sun rose and sent his level beams along the stream, the thin stratum of mist, or malaria, rose also and dispersed, but the light was not able to enliven the dull water nor give any hint of its apparently fathomless depth.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

We did not accept the excuse, which it was natural to suppose had been invented to save him the trouble of travelling to Shimonoséki, but I now incline to think that horrorstruck at the violent proceedings of his followers who had dared to fight against the defenders of the palace (and also repenting of their failure), the old prince had hastened to atone for the crime of treason, as far as lay in his power, by declaring his readiness to undergo any penalty that might be decreed by the sovereign—if his retainers would let him, being understood.
— from A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period by Ernest Mason Satow

It has been said, however, that we may attend to an object on the periphery of the visual field and yet not accommodate the eye for it.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

In some parts of Java, at the season when the bloom will soon be on the rice, the husbandman and his wife visit their fields by night and there engage in sexual intercourse for the purpose of promoting the growth of the crop.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

And until he signals back "Line clear" to the box behind, a train is not allowed to enter his section.
— from How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use by Archibald Williams

Near Amiens the expression for finishing the harvest is, “They are going to kill the Cat”; and when the last corn is cut they kill a cat in the farmyard.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Of all this there will be nothing in my book, for I have nothing to quote in the margin or to note at the end, and still less do I know what authors I follow in it, to place them at the beginning, as all do, under the letters A, B, C, beginning with Aristotle and ending with Xenophon, or Zoilus, or Zeuxis, though one was a slanderer and the other a painter.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I can, however, give clear and manifest reasons in every single case why we are not allowed to eat this food which is forbidden by the sacred ordinance, and presently I will do this.
— from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian

They had, it is true, supported me during the journey, but left me nothing at the end of it, and I arrived at Turin, without money, clothes, or linen, being precisely in the situation to owe to my merit alone the whole honor of that fortune I was about to acquire.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

But as this transition proceeds from experience, and not from any primary connexion betwixt the ideas, we must necessarily acknowledge, that experience may produce a belief and a judgment of causes and effects by a secret operation, and without being once thought of.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

The influence of novelty has been so well illustrated in an Essay by the author of a Treatise on Happiness, that we trust no apology will be required for transferring a portion of it to our pages:— “The term novelty applies to everything new—either newly invented, or newly exhibited to us; in the former case the thing is novel to the world, in the latter it is novel to ourselves.
— from Beauty: Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classificatin of Beauty in Woman by Alexander Walker

Unpoliteness not always the effect of pride 201.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 03 The Rambler, Volume II by Samuel Johnson

Yet the Italians are rather plain-spoken, and they recognize facts which our company manners at least do not admit the existence of.
— from Literature and Life (Complete) by William Dean Howells

The walls should stand out at right angles to the circumference of the figure or so nearly as the exigencies of the figure permit.
— from Pottery, for Artists, Craftsmen & Teachers by George James Cox

↑ 30 This has been touched upon in my Hibbert Lectures , p. 676; but to the reasons there briefly mentioned should be added a reference to the position allotted to intercalary months in the Norse calendar, namely, at the end of the summer half, that is, as I think, at the end of the ancient Norse year.
— from Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (Volume 1 of 2) by Rhys, John, Sir

Under Mrs Climoe's onslaught of accusation she wheeled about in bewilderment, at the sound of hammering, to perceive Nicky-Nan at the end of the passage, driving a staple into his doorpost with blows of a poker.
— from Nicky-Nan, Reservist by Arthur Quiller-Couch

It was also matter of deep regret that there was much quarrelling between the Netherlanders and the Englishmen as to their respective share of the spoils; the Netherlanders complaining loudly that they had been defrauded.
— from PG Edition of Netherlands series — Complete by John Lothrop Motley

The crashing noises sounded more plainly now, and the elephant smell became stronger.
— from Umboo, the Elephant by Howard Roger Garis

"…Christopher Columbus, now arrived at the height of his desire, sets out upon his memorable voyage accompanied by a hundred companions in three caravels, the Pinta, the Nina and the Espiritu Santo."
— from The Hohenzollerns in America With the Bolsheviks in Berlin and Other Impossibilities by Stephen Leacock

One night at the end of this time, the boat cable broke.
— from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century by Diego Aduarte