So it was that, when certain novel-writers in the eighteenth century, having no experience of the life which they attempted to depict, brought forth creatures out of their own unhealthy imaginations, and placed them before their readers as types of heroes and heroines, the public never failed to include quite a number of readers who were ready to live up to all those essentials that constituted the personages of the fiction.
— from A Georgian Pageant by Frank Frankfort Moore

After this Edwin came here nearly every day, and his father called these two fields "Edwin's studio."
— from Stories Pictures Tell. Book Two by Flora L. (Flora Leona) Carpenter

The eighteenth century had not ended before the colonization of Louisiana became more than a dream.
— from A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Vol. V Canada—Part I, Historical by Lucas, Charles Prestwood, Sir

The Episcopal Church had neither existence nor local habitation in the county of Wayne fourteen years ago.
— from Gleanings by the Way by John A. (John Alonzo) Clark

It is idle to speculate what would have been the progress of poetry in England if the Renaissance had not come and the Elizabethan courtier had not enriched himself at the expense of the people.
— from Songs of the Ridings by F. W. (Frederic William) Moorman

“We did fetch over a sure-enough airship last week—belonged to that fellow Paulhan and he’s a decentish chap, too; you’d never think he was a Frenchman!”—which would seem to indicate that the entente cordiale had not entirely cleared away prejudice from the mind of our sailor-friend.
— from On Old-World Highways A Book of Motor Rambles in France and Germany and the Record of a Pilgrimage from Land's End to John O'Groats in Britain by Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler) Murphy

The ignorant, of course, do not know anything about the value and wealth of the legacy bequeathed to us by our glorious ancestors of Greek and Roman times, but the educated can have no excuse for any failure to own their everlasting indebtedness to the Pagans.
— from The Truth About Jesus : Is He a Myth? Illustrated by M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch) Mangasarian

One cannot help but wonder why it is that when the border-land twixt food and poison is so narrow in the chemistry of the living cell that every creature has not equipped itself with prussic acid enough to preserve itself from its enemies.
— from Book of Monsters Portraits and Biographies of a Few of the Inhabitants of Woodland and Meadow by Marian Fairchild

The French ships, larger, deeper, and with better lines than their opponents, were naturally better sailers, and it may be inferred that even coppering had not entirely overcome this original disadvantage of the British.
— from The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan