The only son of Justin and Sophia died in his infancy; their daughter Arabia was the wife of Baduarius, 24 superintendent of the palace, and afterwards commander of the Italian armies, who vainly aspired to confirm the rights of marriage by those of adoption.
— 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

The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

In all levies, a just preference was given to the climates of the North over those of the South: the race of men born to the exercise of arms was sought for in the country rather than in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed, that the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen, would supply more vigor and resolution than the sedentary trades which are employed in the service of luxury.
— 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

Under this head I shall deliver, with no feigned diffidence, the results of my best reflection on the great point of controversy between Mr. Wordsworth and his objectors; namely, on the choice of his characters.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman—a howl—a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the dammed in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe

In the same campaign the first objective point of Napoleon was to fall upon the right of Mélas by the Saint-Bernard, and to seize his line of communications: hence Saint-Bernard, Ivrea, and Piacenza were [Pg 88] decisive points only by reason of the march of Mélas upon Nice.
— from The Art of War by Jomini, Antoine Henri, baron de

What those are Mr. Winwood Reade learned from a negro steward, who informed him that he was taken into a fetich, or idol house, severely flogged, and plastered with goat-dung: this ceremony, like the rites of masonry, being conducted to the sound of music.
— from Curiosities of Superstition, and Sketches of Some Unrevealed Religions by W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport) Adams

For though its beauty is perhaps less obvious and has been much impaired by the ravages of modern builders, yet the Inner Temple remains a locus classicus for the fine beauty of the Jacobean and Queen Anne styles, and across its green lawn the view of the Embankment, the River, and Surrey Hills—too often, alas!
— from The Inns of Court by Cecil Headlam

The way which we should have chosen would, in our opinion, have been much more certain to prevent the relief of Mantua; but even if we place ourselves in the position of the French General and assume that it was not so, and look upon the certainty of success to have been less, the question then amounts to a choice between a more certain but less useful, and therefore less important, victory on the one hand, and a somewhat less probable but far more decisive and important victory, on the other hand.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

60 In midstream passes a continual parade of freighters ... and in their swell you may see, teetering, all kinds of craft, from proud white yachts to canoes 71 The automobile has not only changed Detroit from a quiet old town into a rich, active city, but upon the drowsy romance of the old days it has superimposed the romance of modern business 74 Of course there was order in that place, of course there was system—relentless system—terrible "efficiency"—but to my mind it expressed but one thing, and that thing was delirium 97
— from Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street by Julian Street

My disorder has been a cold, which impeded the organs of respiration, and kept me many weeks in a state of great uneasiness; but by repeated phlebotomy it is now relieved; and next to the recovery of Mrs. Boswell, I flatter myself, that you will rejoice at mine.
— from Life of Johnson, Volume 4 1780-1784 by James Boswell

39. [ 13 ] Although not immediately touching our subject, a very curious set of letters included in the above in the Record Office may be mentioned.
— from The Court of Philip IV.: Spain in Decadence by Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp) Hume

If, on the other hand, the temperature over and about the ice field be lowered, melting will be diminished, and if the rate of movement be constant, the edge of the ice will advance farther than under the earlier conditions of temperature, since it has more time to advance before it is melted.
— from The Geography of the Region about Devil's Lake and the Dalles of the Wisconsin With Some Notes on Its Surface Geology by Rollin D. Salisbury

As it is, just as Apelles perfected the head and bust of his Venus with the most elaborate art, but left the rest of her body in the rough, so certain persons only took pains with my head, and left the rest of my body unfinished and unworked.
— from The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Among those manuscripts which I have seen, I find one mentioned, apparently of a wide circuit, under the reference of “My Biographical Institutions.
— from Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 by Isaac Disraeli

The delocalizer, reacting on the thalamic region of my brain, intercepted pain currents and allowed me to exist without physical feeling.
— from Walls of Acid by Henry Hasse