The tradition in Boston used to be, that some of the streets there followed the line of accidental cow-paths formed in the olden time in the uncleared bush; and no doubt other old American towns, like ancient European towns generally, exhibit, in the direction of their thoroughfares, occasionally, traces of casual circumstances in the history of the first settlers on their respective sites.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

And when they had finished speaking, the old couple crept into their houses, and came out no more; for they slept.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

A portion of the original caffein content is lost by sublimation.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

If any one could at that moment have told the young barrister that so simple a thing as his cousin's brief letter would one day come to be a link in that terrible chain of evidence afterward to be slowly forged in the only criminal case in which he was ever to be concerned, perhaps Mr. Robert Audley would have lifted his eyebrows a little higher than usual.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Note 87 ( return ) [ Chalcondyles (l. v.) and Ducas (c. 23) exhibit the rude lineament of the Ottoman policy, and the transmutation of Christian children into Turkish soldiers.
— 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

he had in his possession a very good pipe tomahawk which he informed us he had received as a present from a trader who visited him last winter over land pointing to the N. W., whome he called Swippeton; he was pleased with the tommahawk of Capt. C. in consequence of it's having a brass bowl and
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The House of the Seven Gables THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Table of Contents CHAPTER INTRODUCTORY NOTE AUTHOR'S PREFACE I. THE OLD PYNCHEON FAMILY II.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

[Pg ix] TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. Sociology and the Social Sciences PAGE I. Sociology and "Scientific" History 1 II.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE 1 Salutatory.—The Morse Lectureship and its provisions.—The Science of Comparative Religion is Christianity's own child.—The Parliament of Religions.—The Study of Religion most appropriate in a Theological Seminary.—Shortening weapons and lengthening boundaries.—The right missionary spirit that of the Master, who "came not to destroy but to fulfil.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis

II Now let us see, in the light of what has gone before, the line to take for creating an ideally comic type of character, comic in itself, in its origin, and in all its manifestations.
— from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground, And built so shelving that one cannot climb it Without apparent hazard of his life.
— from Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare

Where no motives of pride or interest intervene, none can equal them for profound and philosophical views of society, or faithful and graphical description of external objects; but when either the interest or reputation of their own country comes in collision with that of another, they go to the opposite extreme, and forget their usual probity and candor, in the indulgence of splenetic remark, and an illiberal spirit of ridicule.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 37.5% male: 52.2% female: 23.6% (2000) Government Benin Country name: conventional long form: Republic of Benin conventional short form: Benin local short form: Benin former: Dahomey local long form: Republique du Benin Government type: republic under multiparty democratic rule; dropped Marxism-Leninism December 1989; democratic reforms adopted February 1990; transition to multiparty system completed 4 April 1991 Capital: Porto-Novo is the official capital; Cotonou is the seat of government Administrative divisions: 12 provinces; Alibori, Atakora, Atlantique, Borgou, Collines, Couffo, Donga, Littoral, Mono, Oueme, Plateau, Zou Independence: 1 August 1960 (from France) National holiday: National Day, 1 August (1960) Constitution: December 1990
— from The 2002 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

She adored the culture brought by the "new learning;" delighted in the society of Sir Philip Sidney, who reflected all that was best in England of that day; talked of poetry with Spenser; discussed philosophy with Bruno; read Greek tragedies and Latin orations in the original; could converse in French and Italian, and was besides proficient in another language,—the language of the fishwife,—which she used with startling effect with her lords and ministers when her temper was aroused, and swore like a trooper if occasion required.
— from The Evolution of an Empire: A Brief Historical Sketch of England by Mary Platt Parmele

We were then taken over Christine Creek in a canoe, and landed at the spot where Stuyvesant threw up his battery to attack the fort, and compelled them to surrender.
— from Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 by Jasper Danckaerts

I have his feet, gazing round upon the old clergyman called it a full account, though it occupied but one page of paper, for the good doctor was anything but profuse of words; and there are some men who can say much in small space.
— from The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen Anne by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

"Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?" said Dorothea to him, one morning, early in the time of courtship; "could I not learn to read Latin and Greek aloud to you, as Milton's daughters did to their father, without understanding what they read?
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot

Buchanan told me that they often catch chickens in this way, and find them excellent eating.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, September 1893 by Various

It took nearly ten minutes to get the telegraph office, fifteen miles away, and then Stanley Downs had to repeat his message twice before the operator could catch it and repeat it back for verification.
— from Wide Awake Magazine, Volume 4, Number 3, January 10, 1916 by Various