By his persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were introduced to the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to the voice of reason and enthusiasm; they repeated the fundamental creed, "There is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;" and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded with riches and honors, with the command of armies and the government of kingdoms.
— 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

The old park, laid out in the English style, gloomy and severe, stretched for almost three-quarters of a mile to the river, and there ended in a steep, precipitous clay bank, where pines grew with bare roots that looked like shaggy paws; the water shone below with an unfriendly gleam, and the peewits flew up with a plaintive cry, and there one always felt that one must sit down and write a ballad.
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

There does seem to be a prodigious lot of islands this year; the map of this region is freckled and fly-specked all over with them.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

They say that this end ought to fix not [329] only the negative but the positive limit of indulgence; that the pleasure derived from the gratification of appetite should never be sought per se (even when it does not impair health, or interfere with duty, or with a greater pleasure of a different kind); but only in so far as such gratification is positively conducive to health.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick

¶ We have reprinted Mr. Halliwell Phillips to call attention to the change in [Pg lvii] order in this edition.
— from The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn; With Notes by King of England Henry VIII

From the beginning of our era down to recent times the Sānkhya doctrines have exercised considerable influence on the religious and philosophical life of India, though to a much less extent than the Vedānta.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell

from that methodised experience called observation; but on account of the universality and necessity which it ascribes to such purposiveness it cannot rest solely on empirical grounds, but must have at its basis an a priori principle, although it be merely regulative and these purposes lie only in the idea of the judging [subject] and not in an effective cause.
— from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

All the rich Punjab lay out in the splendour of the keen sun.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Had Secretary Seward and Senator Sumner given to Mr. Adams the rank of Ambassador and four times his salary, a palace in London, a staff of trained secretaries, and personal letters of introduction to the royal family and the whole peerage, the private secretary would have been cabin-boy still, with the extra burden of many masters; he was the most fortunate person in the party, having for master only his father who never fretted, never dictated, never disciplined, and whose idea of American diplomacy was that of the eighteenth century.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

In its fuller development this inner setting becomes the ambition for leadership in the affairs of practical life or in the sphere of cultural work.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

In referring to any of the marks to be found in the three eight-suit packs of Hindostanee cards, which appear to be intended for the purposes of play only, it seems unnecessary to specify the particular pack to which they belong, as my object is merely to call attention to the apparent agreement between some of the marks of Hindostanee cards, and those which are either known to have been the marks of the earliest European cards, or are to be found on such old cards as are still preserved in public libraries, or in the collections of individuals.
— from Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards by William Andrew Chatto

Before 1908 the last remaining walls of the hôtel du Prévôt still stood in Passage Charlemagne, a picturesque turreted Renaissance bit of “Old Paris” let out in tenements, the last vestiges of the historic mansion where many notable persons, royal and other, had sojourned.
— from Historic Paris by Jetta Sophia Wolff

The part of this lower story, on the opposite side of the main passage, consisted also of two rooms, with doors opening into it, and an entry, or short passage, leading out into the street.
— from The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777 by Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce) Thompson

A woman used to pass the day sewing or knitting at her window and amusing herself from time to time by pensively looking out into the street.
— from Tics and Their Treatment by Henry Meige

But still the old prejudice lingered on in the general opinion of the place, especially among the smart praters of the Outer-House , whose glimpses of the social habits of their superiors were likely to be rare, and their gall-bladders to be more distended than their purses.
— from Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 5 (of 10) by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart

‘There was one thing they boggled at, and almost shut th’ gate i’ my face for, and that were my dog Blast, th’ only one saved out o’ a litter o’ pups as was blowed up when a keg o’ minin’ powder loosed off in th’ store-keeper’s hut.
— from Life's Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People by Rudyard Kipling

But those who have most carefully studied the political life of India tell you the very opposite.
— from India: What can it teach us? A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller

True, I should like to have had the poor babe under my own eye and my wife's, that we might try to requite in some degree the many kindnesses we have received from his poor father and mother; but he will be better off in Edinburg. Give him every possible chance of life and health, and a sound mind, and then we must leave the rest to Him, who would not have sent this poor little one into the world at all if He had not had some purpose in so doing, though what that purpose is we can not see.
— from A Noble Life by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

I found her not long ago deep in a volume of "Mr. Welsted's Poems"; and as that author is not particularly lively or inviting to a modern reader, I begged to know why he was thus honored.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 48, October, 1861 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

In the case of the United States this idea was coupled with the broad doctrine that the government held public lands only in the interest of the people, and that its people were entitled to secure these lands for private ownership with the least possible restriction.
— from The Economic Aspect of Geology by C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Leith