The baronet slept peacefully, his noble face plainly visible in the subdued lamplight.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

I therefore, in 1743, drew up a proposal for establishing an academy; and at that time, thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters, who was out of employ, a fit person to superintend such an institution, I communicated the project to him; but he, having more profitable views in the service of the proprietaries, which succeeded, declin'd the undertaking; and, not knowing another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the scheme lie awhile dormant.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

"When he inquired of the captives the reason why Ariovistus did not engage, he learned, that it was because the matrons, who among the Germans are accustomed to pronounce, from their divinations, whether or not a battle will be favorable, had declared that they would not prove victorious, if they should fight before the new moon.
— from The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus

We may, also, believe that a part formerly of high importance has often been retained (as the tail of an aquatic animal by its terrestrial descendants), though it has become of such small importance that it could not, in its present state, have been acquired by natural selection,—a power which acts solely by the preservation of profitable variations in the struggle for life.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

Having regard to the extent of these alterations, and to the annoyance which is felt by the owner of a book at the possession of it in an inferior form, and still more keenly by the writer himself, who must always desire to be read as he is at his best, I have thought that some persons might like to exchange for the new edition the separate edition of the Republic published in 1881, to which this present volume is the successor.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

So long as mere personal vanity is the source of these unworthy artifices—and this is generally the case in speculative discussions, which are mostly destitute of practical interest, and are incapable of complete demonstration—the vanity of the opposite party exaggerates as much on the other side; and thus the result is the same, although it is not brought about so soon as if the dispute had been conducted in a sincere and upright spirit.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

Across the blue water of the tranquil bay, which it shelters from the open sea, rises Poseidon’s sacred island, its peaks veiled in the sombre green of the pines.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

So, little by little, love redeemed Pauline, took away her faults, and placed virtues in their stead.
— from Love Works Wonders: A Novel by Charlotte M. Brame

In all the innumerable wanderings, fights, upturnings and cataclysms of the earth's stupendous career, each creature has been summoned under penalty of death to use what little wit he may have had, and the slightest trace of mental flexibility is of such priceless value in the struggle for existence that natural selection must always have seized upon it, and sedulously hoarded and transmitted it for coming generations to strengthen and increase.
— from The Meaning of Infancy by John Fiske

Muslim 60%, indigenous beliefs 30%, Christian 10% Languages: English (official, regular use limited to literate minority), Mende (principal vernacular in the south), Temne (principal vernacular in the north), Krio (English-based Creole, spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10% of the population but understood by 95%) Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write English, Mende, Temne, or Arabic total population: 31.4% male: 45.4% female: 18.2% (1995 est.)
— from The 2002 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

He knew too that any party venturing into these solitudes would be strong in numbers, and that nothing but the most powerful incentive could induce men whose natural sphere of life lay in the open prairie country, to venture among those rough rocks and tangled woods.
— from Red Cloud, the Solitary Sioux: A Story of the Great Prairie by Butler, William Francis, Sir

“No,” said Charley, taking the hint, and rising; and the next minute he was face to face with Sir Philip Vining in the street.
— from By Birth a Lady by George Manville Fenn

Sierra Leonean(s) adjective: Sierra Leonean Ethnic groups: 20 African ethnic groups 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other 30%), Creole (Krio) 10% (descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area in the late-18th century), refugees from Liberia's recent civil war, small numbers of Europeans, Lebanese, Pakistanis, and Indians Religions: Muslim 60%, indigenous beliefs 30%, Christian 10% Languages: English (official, regular use limited to literate minority), Mende (principal vernacular in the south), Temne (principal vernacular in the north), Krio (English-based Creole, spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10% of the population but understood by 95%) Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write English, Mende, Temne, or Arabic total population: 29.6% male: 39.8% female: 20.5% (2000 est.)
— from The 2007 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

The readers of the preceding volume in this series, entitled, THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS, will recognize Phil and Teddy at once as the lads who had so unexpectedly joined the Sparling Combined Shows the previous summer.
— from The Circus Boys Across the Continent; Or, Winning New Laurels on the Tanbark by Edgar B. P. Darlington

Obscenity has done the same; it has placed virtue in the shell of an idea, and labelled all "good" which dwells within the sanction of Law and respectable (?) custom; and all bad which contravenes the usage of the shell.
— from Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre by Voltairine De Cleyre

Master of the art of playing upon the human heart, the trained inquisitor left no method untried which promised victory in the struggle between him and the helpless wretch abandoned to his experiments.
— from A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I by Henry Charles Lea