As concentrated attention accelerates perception, so, conversely, perception of a stimulus is retarded by anything which either baffles or distracts the attention with which we await it.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

Then follows Laertes a fortress, situated upon the crest of a hill, of a pap-like form; a port belongs to it; next, the city Selinus, 228 then Cragus, a precipitous rock on the sea-coast; then Charadrus 229 a fortress, which has a port (above it is the mountain Andriclus 230 ) and a rocky shore, called Platanistus, next Anemurium 231 a promontory, where the continent approaches nearest to Cyprus, towards the promontory Crommyum, 232 the passage across being 350 stadia.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) Literally Translated, with Notes by Strabo

Raison de plus pour limiter ces facultés de traçabilité aux "oeuvres" qui en ont un réel besoin économique, et d'empêcher que les autres ne soient captées par cette logique.
— from Entretiens / Interviews / Entrevistas by Marie Lebert

His vigorous form was tightly clad in a brown-coloured doublet; a small chiselled poniard hung against his left thigh, and he cast round laughing looks showing his white teeth.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

‘Sudden disappearance—talk of the whole city—search made everywhere without success—public fountain in the great square suddenly ceased playing—weeks elapsed—still a stoppage—workmen employed to clean it—water drawn off—father-in-law discovered sticking head first in the main pipe, with a full confession in his right boot—took him out, and the fountain played away again, as well as ever.’
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

SYN: Component, part, atom.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

"I thought you might be representatives of the Southern Confederacy, and I was rather shy of you," said Captain Passford, as he took the hand of his neighbor.
— from Within The Enemy's Lines by Oliver Optic

This appears to me to have been so clearly proved, that I apprehend no scruple can remain as to the foundation of the theory; but I admit there may be some reason to ask, Why each animal and vegetable does not produce its [233] own likeness, since each individual returns from every part of its body, and collects in a common reservoir, all the organic molecules necessary for the formation of a small organized being?
— from Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c. by Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

Is the poisoning a wife more criminal than the poisoning a whole hospital of wounded soldiers; or the assisting to kill some confined persons, suspected of being enemies, more atrocious than the massacre in cold blood of thousands of disarmed prisoners?
— from Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud (Being secret letters from a gentleman at Paris to a nobleman in London) — Complete by Lewis Goldsmith

"You know that the law will not permit us to claim a flat [Pg 150] rate without a sufficient cash provision, under State control, to guarantee it, and compels us to be purely an assessment company.
— from Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford A Cheerful Account of the Rise and Fall of an American Business Buccaneer by George Randolph Chester