[Pg 21] I held it and the Prism before a Window in such manner that the Sides of the Paper were parallel to the Prism, and both those Sides and the Prism were parallel to the Horizon, and the cross Line was also parallel to it: and that the Light which fell from the Window upon the Paper made an Angle with the Paper, equal to that Angle which was made with the same Paper by the Light reflected from it to the Eye.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

This interpreter was a person employed to transact affairs with the Hollanders.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift

The axe would be placed edgeways towards the archer, and he would have to shoot his arrow through the hole into which the handle was fitted when the axe was in use.
— from The Odyssey Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original by Homer

The other 300,000 or so uncivilized people scattered throughout the rest of the archipelago, the “non-Christian tribes,” which dwell in the mountain fastnesses, remote from “the madding crowd,” cut little more figure, if any, in the general political equation, than the American Indian does with us to-day.
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

Several performers exhibited their tricks, and then the popular favourite came on empty-handed and alone.
— from Aesop's Fables; a new translation by Aesop

From this theme, he made digressions into other parts of medicine, upon which he spoke with such plausible elocution, that the apothecary, whose knowledge in that art was not very profound, looked upon him as a physician of great learning and experience, and hinted a desire of knowing his name and situation.
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

In fact, the whole face of the country is so completely changed that he who had not seen these parts previously, would scarcely believe that waves had ever rolled over the spot where now fertile maise plantations extend themselves to all sides; so wonderfully has everything changed here in a short space of time!
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

The very names by which they call diseases sweeten and mollify the sharpness of them: the phthisic is with them no more than a cough, dysentery but a looseness, the pleurisy but a stitch; and, as they gently name them, so they patiently endure them; they are very great and grievous indeed when they hinder their ordinary labour; they never keep their beds but to die: “Simplex illa et aperta virtus in obscuram et solertem scientiam versa est.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

We must not judge of despots by the temporary successes which the possession of power enabled them to achieve, but by the state in which they leave their country at their death or at their fall.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

(5) Lest by some oversight the above provisions should overlook any possible contingencies, certain other Articles appear in the Treaty, which probably do not add very much in practical effect to those already described, but which deserve brief mention as showing the spirit of completeness in which the victorious Powers entered upon the economic subjection of their defeated enemy.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

Would I allow him to write to me now and again, and would I send a photograph for a poor exile to take away to comfort his loneliness?
— from Pixie O'Shaughnessy by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.

‘He is a pupil of mine, you had better leave him to me,’ he would say to the Seniors, when an undergraduate on his ‘side’ got into trouble; but it may be questioned whether many a delinquent would not have preferred public exposure to the awful half-hour in his tutor’s study by which his rescue was succeeded.
— from Old Friends at Cambridge and Elsewhere by John Willis Clark

He didn't know about the French, but there was not much real harm in English people except their teeth and their taste, which were certainly deplorable.
— from To Let by John Galsworthy

They appear to have been negligent in exercising the powers entrusted to them, and to have allowed themselves to be served by officers who were unacquainted with their duties.
— from Australasian Democracy by Henry de Rosenbach Walker

The preface explains that the author’s name is omitted from modesty, and that several MSS.
— from The Early Oxford Press A Bibliography of Printing and Publishing at Oxford, '1468'-1640; With Notes, Appendixes and Illustrations by Falconer Madan

You can imagine the welcome relief of being able to go about saying and doing perfectly exasperating things to a whole houseful of women—and all in the cause of peace.”
— from The Toys of Peace, and Other Papers by Saki

"The execution is excellent.... Like 'Tom Brown's School Days,' the 'White Horse' gives the reader a feeling of gratitude and personal esteem towards the author.
— from Clara Vaughan, Volume 3 (of 3) by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

It was speedily evident that the rapid march of the first few days was no true index of the time to be consumed on the trip, for while the distance from Kroto to the mouth of the Chulitna, the great tributary of the river up which they were proceeding, was the same as from Kroto to Tyonok, it took the party exactly three times as long.
— from The Boy With the U. S. Survey by Francis Rolt-Wheeler

He determines the subject of his particular examination, the time and manner in which he is to do it, as likewise his occupations during the holy mass, the chaplet, and his visits to the Most Holy Sacrament.
— from Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847 Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies