It has produced also noble designers; although some, like other mannerists, have debased the pencil by hasty and negligent performances.
— from The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 5 (of 6) From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Luigi Lanzi

There were boat-loads of documents, protocols, and notes, drowsy and stagnant as the canals on which they were floated off towards their tombs in the various archives.
— from History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce — Complete (1584-1609) by John Lothrop Motley

A congestion of the entire mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, producing a nasal discharge, a sore and inflamed throat, pains and a feeling of compression, with a cough in the chest, may accompany the disease.
— from The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 4 (of 4) A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies by W. Grant (William Grant) Hague

The disk of the moon sometimes was clouded, and the wind whistled among the trees of the park; all nature, deeply agitated, seemed to sympathize with the thoughts which agitated the minds of the two enemies.
— from The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851 by Various

Getting rid of the pseudo-problems, however, is no easy task: we may realize, for example, that the difficulty of seeing how the transition between past and present ever can be effected is a pseudo-problem because in fact past and present are not distinct and so no transition between them is needed.
— from The Misuse of Mind by Karin Stephen

It is unknown to what altar-piece it belonged, and the pictures are now divided and separately framed.
— from Luca Signorelli by Maud Cruttwell

But the night wore away peacefully, and next day a scout, who had been sent out early to see what was doing at the hostile camp, returned with a morsel of half-burnt wood in his hand.
— from Wild Life in the Land of the Giants: A Tale of Two Brothers by Gordon Stables