we owe the preservation of the perogue to the resolution and fortitude of Cruzatte The Countrey like that of yesterday, passed a Small Island and the enterence of 3 large Creeks, one on the Stard. & the other 2 on the Lard Side, neither of them had any running water at this time—Six good hunters of the party fired at a Brown or Yellow Bear Several times before they killed him, & indeed he had like to have defeated the whole party, he pursued them Seperately as they fired on him, and was near Catching Several of them one he pursued into the river, this bear was large & fat would way about 500 wt; I killed a Buffalow, & Capt.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The next way of a Man's bringing his Good-Nature to the Test, is, to consider whether it operates according to the Rules of Reason and Duty: For if, notwithstanding its general Benevolence to Mankind, it makes no Distinction between its Objects, if it exerts it self promiscuously towards the Deserving and Undeserving, if it relieves alike the Idle and the Indigent, if it gives it self up to the first Petitioner, and lights upon any one rather by Accident than Choice, it may pass for an amiable Instinct, but must not assume the Name of a Moral Virtue.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

MIRA. Let me be pitied first, and afterwards forgotten.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve

In the mean time, he that shall but see their profane rites and foolish customs, how superstitiously kept, how strictly observed, their multitude of saints, images, that rabble of Romish deities, for trades, professions, diseases, persons, offices, countries, places; St. George for England; St. Denis for France, Patrick, Ireland; Andrew, Scotland; Jago, Spain; &c. Gregory for students; Luke for painters; Cosmus and Damian for philosophers; Crispin, shoemakers; Katherine, spinners; &c. Anthony for pigs; Gallus, geese; Wenceslaus, sheep; Pelagius, oxen; Sebastian, the plague; Valentine, falling sickness; Apollonia, toothache; Petronella for agues; and the Virgin Mary for sea and land, for all parties, offices: he that shall observe these things, their shrines, images, oblations, pendants, adorations, pilgrimages they make to them, what creeping to crosses, our Lady of Loretto's rich [6577] gowns, her donaries, the cost bestowed on images, and number of suitors; St. Nicholas Burge in France; our St. Thomas's shrine of old at Canterbury; those relics at Rome, Jerusalem, Genoa, Lyons, Pratum, St. Denis; and how many thousands come yearly to offer to them, with what cost, trouble, anxiety, superstition (for forty several masses are daily said in some of their [6578] churches, and they rise at all hours of the night to mass, come barefoot, &c.), how they spend themselves, times, goods, lives, fortunes, in such ridiculous observations; their tales and figments, false miracles, buying and selling of pardons, indulgences for 40,000 years to come, their processions on set days, their strict fastings, monks, anchorites, friar mendicants, Franciscans, Carthusians, &
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

large as life; plump as a dumpling, plump as a partridge; fat as a pig, fat as a quail, fat as butter, fat as brawn, fat as bacon.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

Despite all my youthful conceit and bumptiousness, I found developed beneath it all a reticence and new fear of forwardness, which sprang from searching criticisms of motive and high ideals of efficiency; but contrary to my dream of racial solidarity and notwithstanding my deep desire to serve and follow and think, rather than to lead and inspire and decide, I found myself suddenly the leader of a great wing of people fighting against another and greater wing.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois

It loses personal form and activity—these passing over to the content—and becomes a bare Bewusstheit or Bewusstsein uberhaupt, of which in its own right absolutely nothing can be said.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell

Father and mother had both come from places far away and it was well known they hadn’t any relatives living.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

The commissioners of the revenue were so frequently obliged to make considerable purchases, that they were strictly prohibited from allowing any compensation, or from receiving in money the value of those supplies which were exacted in kind.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

It was recommended by the novelty of the situations which it developes; and, however impossible as a physical fact, affords a point of view to the imagination for the delineating of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

I believe the greater number of these applicants are men; and I do not doubt that the peculiar sexual relations existing at Oneida and Wallingford are an element of attraction to a considerable proportion of the persons who apply for membership, and who are almost without exception rejected; for it is right that I should here prevent a misconception by saying that the Perfectionists are sincerely and almost fanatically attached to their peculiar faith, and accept new members only with great care and many precautions.
— from The Communistic Societies of the United States From Personal Visit and Observation by Charles Nordhoff

But there was nothing of the supernatural in this figure; for after a few moments of wonderful immunity in the midst of that plunging fire, and after a destruction of life which seemed really wonderful to be accomplished by one single man,—fate withdrew the shield which had been interposed before him.
— from Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 by Henry Morford

Perhaps they thought they had gone too far, for there was a sulky growl that might pass for an apology, and Ridley’s counsel was decided that Pierce had better not pursue the matter.
— from Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge

Some make a greater concession; they admit that disagreeable or unhealthy work—such as sewerage—could be paid for at a higher rate than agreeable work.
— from The Conquest of Bread by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz

Looking down the Avenue of Palms from Administration Avenue, a delightful picture is presented.
— from The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition A Pictorial Survey of the Most Beautiful Achitectural Compositions of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by Louis Christian Mullgardt

When the young dicotyledonous plant first appears above the ground, the two cotyledons, which formerly served to shelter the immature bud, usually appear as tiny fleshy leaves; but these soon wither away, while the bud produces the more permanent leaves that are of a very different structure.
— from The Sea Shore by William S. Furneaux

What saved me was the intensity of my passion for Art, and a moral revolt against any action that I thought could or would definitely compromise me in that direction.
— from Confessions of a Young Man by George Moore

He was talking now to the Reverend Peter and Muriel Tarrant, who was prettily flushed and a little excited.
— from The House by the River by A. P. (Alan Patrick) Herbert

The songs of Prince Free-as-a-Bird, which, for the most part, were written in Sicily, remind me quite forcibly of that Provencal notion of " Gaya Scienza, " of that union of singer, knight, and free spirit, which distinguishes that wonderfully early culture of the Provencals from all ambiguous cultures.
— from Ecce Homo Complete Works, Volume Seventeen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Every night she swam across the lake, broke into a potato field, always at the same spot,
— from The Red Battle Flyer by Richthofen, Manfred, Freiherr von