His brother Charles was as well-beloved and as popular as his father, but, then, he excited no particular interest, because he was not suspected to possess the Evil Eye, nor to have any particular connection with the devil.
— from The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

"We'll relieve you of tailless horses, armless and legless dolls, sailless ships, funnelless engines, neckless giraffes, humpless camels, trunkless elephants, even noseless tapirs," he ended with a flourish.
— from The Young O'Briens: Being an Account of Their Sojourn in London by Margaret Westrup

Mr. Montagu describing a Chough in the possession of a friend, says, “his curiosity is beyond bounds, never failing to examine everything new to him: if the gardener be pruning, he examines the nail-box, carries off the nails, and scatters the shreds about.
— from Mrs. Loudon's Entertaining Naturalist Being popular descriptions, tales, and anecdotes of more than Five Hundred Animals. by Mrs. (Jane) Loudon

Mr. Martin agreed to stay a week in order to explain everything necessary to him; and none could have applied himself more assidiously than the young man, whose whole thoughts seemed to have been centered on that of dress and the other sex.
— from Brave Tom; Or, The Battle That Won by Edward Sylvester Ellis

From it the flats which constitute the under-water banks of the Elizabeth extend north towards Hampton Roads, for a distance of two miles, and are not traversable by vessels powerful enough to act against batteries.
— from Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 Volume 2 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

A curiosity which springs forward to examine everything new to his information; a nervous activity, approaching to restlessness, which rarely allows bodily fatigue to interfere with some object in view,—constitute, in my mind, very profitable stock-in-hand to begin the world with.
— from The Caxtons: A Family Picture — Volume 04 by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

In the sad solitude of his exile at Saint Helena, Napoleon I said that not to have created a powerful Poland keystone of the roof of the European edifice, not to have destroyed Prussia, and to have been mistaken in regard to Russia, were the three great errors of his life.
— from Peaceless Europe by Francesco Saverio Nitti