This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
— from A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens

Pattern of fringe used for the mosquito curtain at Malay wedding ceremonies, called daun budi , or the Bo-leaf fringe.
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

In the presidential chair, wearing his uniform and a chain on his breast, he was completely changed.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Or, I'd be precious balm to 'noint, With choicest care each choicest joint; Or, if I might, I would be fain About thy neck thy happy chain, Or would it were my blessed hap To be the lawn o'er thy fair pap.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

" Not far from the bathing-shed boys were catching crayfish with bits of meat; seeing him, they began shouting spitefully, "Bronze!
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus

For that, the best way we can consider it is, with a crane, to pile its bones high up on end.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville

He was a short, flaxen blond, with calm, clear, gray eyes.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

What should be said, by whom , and in what circumstances , constitute ninety per cent of efficiency in public address.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by J. Berg (Joseph Berg) Esenwein

General Johnston announced his plan to be, the withdrawal of General Magruder's troops from the Peninsula, and of General Huger's from Norfolk, to be united with the main body of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the withdrawal of the troops from South Carolina and Georgia, his belief being that General Magruder's line was indefensible with the forces we could concentrate there; that the batteries at Gloucester Point could not be maintained; that the enemy would turn the position at Yorktown by ascending the York River, if the defensive line there should possibly be maintained.
— from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume 2 by Jefferson Davis

According to his original theory, containing a synthesis which, if not very exact, yet sums up the phenomenon with comprehensive clearness, when a cause of degeneration acts upon a man, he may have defective children, whose deficiency increases in the two or three following generations, until it is extinguished in the final sterility of exceedingly debased individuals.
— from Spontaneous Activity in Education by Maria Montessori

And who can censure a man who is wholly religious, for expressing himself in a manner which is grounded on the first principles of religion?
— from The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi by Candide Chalippe

Squeezing the weary cat carefully under one arm, Peter began to climb by the aid of a chair into the big bed.
— from The Wonderful Bed by Gertrude Knevels

His men now saw a wonderful sight: cities built over lakes, where canals took the place of streets and where canoes carried people from place to place.
— from A Beginner's History by William H. (William Harrison) Mace

When these great works were completed, Croesus sent them away to Delphi, and with them two bowls of enormous size, one of gold, the other of silver.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 26, December, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

Lady Carmilla was returning from Peru, where she had been hunting armadillos; the ship in which she was travelling was wrecked in the Straits of Magellan, and she was rescued by Prince Wurra-Wurra, who was casually cruising about in his catamaran.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, July 4, 1917 by Various

"The last edition was carefully compared with the Original M. S."— Ib. , p. 239.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

"It does not matter, Gavinia," he said, with a ghastly smile; but on the following Sunday, when Corp called at the doctor's house, the thought "Have they found it?" leaped in front of all thought of Grizel.
— from Tommy and Grizel by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie