In discussing a subject so abstruse and difficult as this, it would seem, in the present stage of human thought at least, most satisfactory to set out from the Reason rather than the Sense, from the idea rather than the phenomenon; and so will we do.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation Including Some Strictures Upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and Mr. Herbert Spencer by Jesse Henry Jones

The lizard sprang away and disappeared, and the skull itself crumbled to pieces and became dust among dust.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

Certainly no mortal could, but for the sake of the moral it couches, invent such an absurd dream as this, so much out of the road of thought!
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

Svegdir, for instance, saw a large stone and a dwarf at the door entering in it.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

And we may here add, that these propositions are equally true in the inverse, and that whatever objects are separable are also distinguishable, and that whatever objects are distinguishable, are also different.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

"Ay, that will do," said the majordomo; "for I know Diego de la Llana, and know that he is a gentleman of position and a rich man, and that he has a son and a daughter, and that since he was left a widower nobody in all this town can speak of having seen his daughter's face; for he keeps her so closely shut up that he does not give even the sun a chance of seeing her; and for all that report says she is extremely beautiful."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I now saw that I had been asked for a service admirable and difficult; and there would be a greatness in letting it be seen—oh, in the right quarter!—that I could succeed where many another girl might have failed.
— from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolute dominion, and the world beheld for the first time a Christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna.
— 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

But now I have forgiven the world for the love of you; now that I see you, young and with a promising future,—now that I think of all that may result to you in the good fortune of such a disclosure, I shudder at any delay, and tremble lest I should not assure to one as worthy as yourself the possession of so vast an amount of hidden wealth.”
— from The Count of Monte Cristo, Illustrated by Alexandre Dumas

They called for the repeal of the Stamp Act, and declared against the importation of English goods until the repeal should be granted.
— from Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading by George Park Fisher

The girl struggled, and shrieked amain, as did also the maid.
— from The Decameron, Volume II by Giovanni Boccaccio

Famine drove them at last to choose between surrender and a desperate attempt to cut their way out.
— from History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce, 1600-02 by John Lothrop Motley

xv. 2); and he could never break out in so admirable a doxology as that in the text, without a deep sense of the glory of his purity, which he speaks of with so much admiration.
— from The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2 by Stephen Charnock

Therefore to greatly praise him is to publish - 12 - our ignorance, or, at all events, to make it appear that he is admired because, being numerous and familiar with man, he has been closely and well looked at, while the wilder and less common species have only been seen at a distance, and therefore indistinctly.
— from Birds in London by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

A satisfactory answer was returned and Waller proceeded in the erection of the mission-house, which was divided into two apartments, one of which served as a dwelling, and the other as a storeroom for the goods of the Mission.
— from Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon by Frederick V. Holman

And yet,—alas, in the shadowy future it lieth still, and a dark and treacherous realm is that!
— from The Bride of Fort Edward: Founded on an Incident of the Revolution by Delia Salter Bacon

He uses certain special stones and combinations, having definite shapes and approximate dimensions assigned to them, and he connects these with secondary blocks, the whole being arranged with a studied irregularity, both for comfort in walking and artistic grace.
— from The flowers and gardens of Japan by Florence Du Cane