It was perhaps his want of imagination and of what is called the historic consciousness; but to many of the impressions usually made by English life upon the cultivated stranger his sense was completely closed.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James

sī , in early Latin sei , is originally a locative, meaning under those circumstances , so .
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane

The first words written on the parchment found in the leaden box were these: THE ACADEMICIANS OF ARGAMASILLA, A VILLAGE OF LA MANCHA, ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA, HOC SCRIPSERUNT MONICONGO, ACADEMICIAN OF ARGAMASILLA, ON THE TOMB OF DON QUIXOTE EPITAPH The scatterbrain that gave La Mancha more Rich spoils than Jason’s; who a point so keen Had to his wit, and happier far had been If his wit’s weathercock a blunter bore; The arm renowned far as Gaeta’s shore, Cathay, and all the lands that lie between; The muse discreet and terrible in mien As ever wrote on brass in days of yore; He who surpassed the Amadises all, And who as naught the Galaors accounted, Supported by his love and gallantry: Who made the Belianises sing small, And sought renown on Rocinante mounted; Here, underneath this cold stone, doth he lie.
— from The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Complete by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“He'll be the boy for the clean job,” said the oldsters to one another, and waited their time until they could set him to his work.
— from The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

If they remain united, they continue so no longer naturally, but voluntarily; and the family itself is then maintained only by convention.
— from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Philosophy discredited itself; but a man of parts, who loved intellectual games even better than backgammon, might take a hand with the wits and historians of his day, until the clock struck twelve and the party was over.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Nay, by the way, this posture seemed to have continued in the Christian church, till the clergy, instead of learning their prayers by heart, read them out of a book, which is in a great measure inconsistent with such an elevated posture, and which seems to me to have been only a later practice, introduced under the corrupt state of the church; though the constant use of divine forms of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, appears to me to have been the practice of God's people, patriarchs, Jews, and Christians, in all the past ages.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

C H A P. XIX ’T IS a pity, Trim, said my uncle Toby, resting with his hand upon the corporal’s shoulder, as they both stood surveying their works,—that we have not a couple of field-pieces to mount in the gorge of that new redoubt;—’twould secure the lines all along there, 69 and make the attack on that side quite complete:——get me a couple cast, Trim.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

If you outline your design with a cord, secure it on the right side with invisible stitches, untwisting the cord slightly as you insert your needle and thread, that the stitch may be hidden between the strands.
— from Encyclopedia of Needlework by Thérèse de Dillmont

When the English Participle in ing comes after a Verb of motion with the Preposition a before it, we use the corresponding substantive, instead of the Verb, though sometimes the latter.
— from Exercises upon the Different Parts of Italian Speech, with References to Veneroni's Grammar to which is added an abridgement of the Roman history, intended at once to make the learner acquainted with history, and the idiom of the Italian language by Ferdinando Bottarelli

Every station we passed the gunboats would come off and attempt to stop us, their crews shouting and yelling like fiends, sometimes even firing blank cartridge to arrest our passage.
— from Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume I) by Augustus F. Lindley

Under these circumstances she acted with singular prudence, in never alluding to a topic of such difficulty, and which involved a contingency that might affect her lover in a double sense.
— from Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

All the wine and fresh meat we had was reserved for the sick; and in order that they might not fail us, the commission seized, after a valuation on both sides, the cellars and the cattle which were found in the place.
— from Memoirs of General Count Rapp, first aide-de-camp to Napoleon by Rapp, Jean, comte

They must, therefore, determine what is the best form of obtaining the necessary capital, viz.: whether to borrow the money on a farm mortgage, or whether to use the capital someone else has invested in a farm by paying him rent for it.
— from The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know by Thomas Forsyth Hunt

He used to cast stealthy glances at it, and feel comforted.
— from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad

"Annabel Lee can't get up there, can she?" he grinned.
— from Four Little Blossoms and Their Winter Fun by Mabel C. Hawley

The other colour processes now used with success also are based upon the colour screen.
— from The Boy's Book of New Inventions by Harry E. (Harry Edward) Maule