So with natural species, if we look to forms very distinct, for instance to the horse and tapir, we have no reason to suppose that links ever existed directly intermediate between them, but between each and an unknown common parent.
— 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

I regarded the selection of myself as being somewhat remarkable.
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

And though the rest of the guests took absolutely no notice of the young journalist, who had contributed only four wretched poems to the Firebrand , and had consequently become a Liberal and evidently, indeed, disliked him, yet when a pellet of bread aimed in his direction fell near Ivan Ilyitch, he was ready to stake his head that it had [77] been thrown by no other than the young man in question.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The moon had reached her summit in the heavens, and was beginning to descend; the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture, and dimmed her rays, while the lake reflected the scene of the busy heavens, rendered still busier by the restless waves that were beginning to rise.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

She looked as amazed as the other two, but Rilla realized that she didn't look cross.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Ofonius rather than Sophonius (Dio MSS.)
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 (of 6) An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek during the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Cassius Dio Cocceianus

Winckelmann was found dangerously wounded, and died a few hours later, after receiving the sacraments of the Romish Church.
— from The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater

They who call it so, have no right to speak on such matters.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

This being agreed to, he received the sentence of exile, and retired to Germany, where he continued to preach against the pope, and to expose the gross errors of the church of Rome.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

A Bishop is a very busy man: he must every day receive the secretary of the bishopric, who is generally a canon, and nearly every day his vicars-general.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

"He must get ready," they said.
— from Further Foolishness by Stephen Leacock

The sun pierced with a ray the small blue bubbles of the waves that, breaking, followed each other; branchless old willows mirrored their grey backs in the water; beyond, all around, the meadows seemed empty.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

On his return to Sydney he left the two young mechanics, and they were afterwards joined by the Reverend John Thomas, a young ardent missionary from England.
— from The Cruise of the Mary Rose; Or, Here and There in the Pacific by William Henry Giles Kingston

THE FUTURE COUNTESS As the fugitive and his protectress passed out through the verandah and turned away from the bridge toward the car, they were relieved to see that Blake was not yet in sight.
— from Out of the Primitive by Robert Ames Bennet

"I'm going to be up to my neck in spaghetti," Rick told Scotty when they met for supper.
— from The Scarlet Lake Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin

We next flattened the two opposite sides with a heavy hammer, which necessarily caused the water to occupy a less space, since the sphere is the solid of greatest content; and when hammering failed from the resistance of the water, we made use of a mill or press, till at last the water, refusing to submit to a greater pressure, exuded like a fine dew through the solid lead.
— from Novum Organum; Or, True Suggestions for the Interpretation of Nature by Francis Bacon

In an historical view, it will reflect the strongest and best lights upon the nature and operations of the Government itself, its powers, its duties, and its policy.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

She offered him, she thought, a glass of wine; but, raising the sword of state, silver scabbard and all, he with a tremendous swing of it, dashed the glass out of her hands; and then, as she stood abashed, he went forward with one of his old grave kind looks to kiss her.
— from The Wide, Wide World by Susan Warner