Rocking sets children to sleep better than absolute rest; there is indeed scarcely anything at that age, which gives more pleasure than to be gently lifted up and down; the manner of playing which their nurses use with children, and the weighing and swinging used afterwards by themselves as a favorite amusement, evince this very sufficiently.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

He used long afterwards to tell as a characteristic touch, that when he began to speak of Mitya, Fyodor Pavlovitch looked for some time as though he did not understand what child he was talking about, and even as though he was surprised to hear that he had a little son in the house.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Such a man was not likely to neglect the clue of the tinder-box, and an inquiry was set on foot concerning a pedlar, name unknown, with curly black hair and a foreign complexion, carrying a box of cutlery and jewellery, and wearing large rings in his ears.
— from Silas Marner by George Eliot

She was alone in London: and the whole town of marvels and mud, with its maze of streets and its mass of lights, was sunk in a hopeless night, rested at the bottom of a black abyss from which no unaided woman could hope to scramble out.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

The plan of the conspirators was to fall upon the senate at the opening of the new year, and murder as many of them as should be thought necessary; upon which, Crassus was to assume the office of dictator, and appoint Caesar his master of the horse 22 .
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Such designs are generally set on foot by the secret motion and instigation of the peers and nobles, under whose connivance the common sort are prepared for rising; whence proceeds a swell in the state, which is appositely denoted by the nursing of Typhon.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

If our faces were not alike, we could not distinguish man from beast; if they were not unlike, we could not distinguish one man from another; all things hold by some similitude; every example halts, and the relation which is drawn from experience is always faulty and imperfect.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

No bitter gibes, no harsh expressions, no unbecoming word characterised our intercourse; religion formed a wonderful bond of harmony, and when I looked on the devout countenances that there hung over the inspired page, as I commented on the selected text, I cherished the pleasing hope that the clouds, so big with wrath, had been charged with showers of everlasting mercy.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein

“‘Ah, ah,’ said the chief, ‘I now understand why Carlini stayed behind.’
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

I am returned, and am still tormented by delay!—I cannot help it—I said I would not use wilful cruelty: that were to heap unnecessary damnation!
— from Anna St. Ives by Thomas Holcroft

It was not until we crossed them that I could see their figures; until then I had been able to study only their costume and general outline.
— from Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850 by Various

Threading their way through these impediments was a matter not only of time, but of difficulty, for in some parts the spaces between the boulders and blocks were hollow, and covered with thin crusts of snow, which gave way the instant a foot was set on them, plunging up to their waists the unfortunates who trod there, with a shock which usually called forth shouts of astonishment not unmingled with consternation.
— from Rivers of Ice by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

It often passes from one Cheek to the other, and extends successively over the Forehead, the Neck, and the Nape of the Neck; under which Circumstance the Disease is of a more than ordinary Duration.
— from Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot

I do not understand what can have induced her to sacrifice herself with such wonderful unselfishness for us, who are really only strangers to her, in whom she can feel no interest.
— from The Coming Conquest of England by August Niemann

Experiments now under way convince me there is less fading on plates of certain colors than on the white ones.
— from Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting A Complete Handbook for the Amateur Taxidermist, Collector, Osteologist, Museum-Builder, Sportsman, and Traveller by W. J. (William Jacob) Holland

Those who did not understand would condemn, and the existence of either class was of no earthly importance to himself or to Ella.
— from Phyllis of Philistia by Frank Frankfort Moore

(4) The purifying material shall not, under working conditions, be capable of forming explosive compounds or mixtures.
— from Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use A Practical Handbook on the Production, Purification, and Subsequent Treatment of Acetylene for the Development of Light, Heat, and Power by W. J. Atkinson (William John Atkinson) Butterfield

What wonder, then, that the multitude did not understand what creation meant, and that a reasonable interpretation of the word has only become possible in quite recent times?
— from Creation and Its Records A Brief Statement of Christian Belief with Reference to Modern Facts and Ancient Scripture by B. H. (Baden Henry) Baden-Powell