The concave Metal bore an Aperture of an Inch and a third part; but the Aperture was limited not by an opake Circle, covering the Limb of the Metal round about, but by an opake Circle placed between the Eyeglass and the Eye, and perforated in the middle with a little round hole for the Rays to pass through to the Eye.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

Many of the projects of the original plan were but partially accomplished, and others were not even attempted; but in spite of this, the results attained by Bering and his associates will stand as boundary-posts in the history of geographical discovery.
— from Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait by Peter Lauridsen

After dinner altered our design to go to Woolwich, and put it off to to-morrow morning, and so went all to Greenwich (Mrs. Waith excepted, who went thither, but not to the same house with us, but to her father’s, that lives there), to the musique-house, where we had paltry musique, till the master organist came, whom by discourse I afterwards knew, having employed him for my Lord Sandwich, to prick out something (his name Arundell), and he did give me a fine voluntary or two, and so home by water, and at home I find my girl that run away brought by a bedel of St. Bride’s Parish, and stripped her and sent her away, and a newe one come, of Griffin’s helping to, which I think will prove a pretty girl.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Strange, ain't it, how folks seem to resent anyone being born a mite cleverer than they be.
— from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

And then, to cap the climax, the floor boss would come rushing up with a rifle and begin blazing away!
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

She wore the picturesque costume of the Catalan fisherwomen, a red and black bodice, and golden pins in her hair.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

They wonderfully cool the heat of the liver, reins, and bladder, breast, and stomach, and stop looseness, cools the heat of fevers.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

It formed one of the supporters of the royal arms borne by all the Tudor monarchs, with the exception of Queen Mary, who substituted the eagle.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

This view of things was rather a bad beginning, as it usually is; and, in fact, six weeks later, in the month of May, she was lying in her room, pulseless and bloodless, with hardly strength enough left to follow up one feeble breath with another, the infant for whose unnecessary life she was slowly parting with her own being fat and well.
— from Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy

The usual rhyme-arrangement in the quatrains is a b b a a b b a , more rarely a b b a
— from A History of English Versification by J. (Jakob) Schipper

A gun cracked among the rocks to the right, and Negore heard the war-yell of all his tribe, and for an instant saw the rocks and bushes bristle alive with his kinfolk.
— from Love of Life, and Other Stories by Jack London

After the shower of kisses Mary and I forgot our sore toes, and, with her, hurried on, visiting all the way until we neared our destination, when in the woods, a flood of red bitter-sweet berries attracted their attention and, in spite of all I could do or say, they left the road and began browsing again.
— from Looking Back: An Autobiography by Merrick Abner Richardson

It was love-in-a-mist—one of those illumined pages of Life, where every word and smile, and every light touch they gave each other were as little gold and red and blue butterflies and flowers and birds scrolled in among the text—a happy communing, without afterthought, which lasted thirty-seven minutes.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume III. Awakening To Let by John Galsworthy

The Museum of Antiquities embraces a small collection, in four rooms, of Roman altars, bronzes, busts, and mosaics, principally from Velleia and Rome.
— from The South of France—East Half by C. B. Black

I'd got my rugger and boxing blues and I'd just been picked for scrum-half for England against the North in the first trial match, and between ourselves it really did look as if I was more or less of a snip for my international.”
— from The Adventures of Sally by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse