For popular tradition, it is all the better if the answer be oracular, so as itself to awaken wonder as an enigma of the second order, veiling rather than revealing what its profundities are supposed to contain.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James

About three o'clock, being near that point and seeing that the enemy was giving way everywhere else, I gathered up a couple of regiments, or parts of regiments, from troops near by, formed them in line of battle and marched them forward, going in front myself to prevent premature or long-range firing.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

They probably boiled and then peeled and sliced the tubers, seasoning the pieces with the above ingredients, heated them in bouillon stock and thickened the gravy in the usual way.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius

When he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the sultan, instead of praising his valor, severely reproached his obstinate folly: and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence, that he should be fastened to four stakes, and left to expire in that painful situation.
— 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

Thence home with [Sir] W. Pen, and there all mightily pleased with the play; and so to supper and to bed, after having done at the office.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

At her command her children, the Winds, flew down to the plain, and seizing the body of the slain hero conveyed it through the air safe from the desecration of the enemy.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens

At times monstrous images are created, but the setting and the whole picture are so truth-like and filled with details so delicate, so unexpectedly, but so artistically consistent, that the dreamer, were he an artist like Pushkin or Turgenev even, could never have invented them in the waking state.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

with which she burst into tears, and Amelia falling into her arms, did likewise, and so each pitied and soothed the other.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

They had perched by thousands on the islet and on the shore, and they disappeared in the distance, leaving the colonists amazed as if they had been present at some transformation scene, in which summer succeeded winter at the touch of a fairy’s wand.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

These should be published and spread throughout the nation, so that at least the leaders among the people should become, to some degree, awakened, and arise to exert themselves along those lines which will lead to their abiding honor.
— from The Secret of Divine Civilization by `Abdu'l-Bahá

On arriving at Tunis, we called at the Bardo as we passed, and saw the guard mounting.
— from Travels in Morocco, Volume 2. by James Richardson

We fixed on a spot, and erected our rude hut; then we bought a rocker and shovel, pick-axe and spade, with two tin pans, and set to work.
— from A Voyage round the World A book for boys by William Henry Giles Kingston

The proposition does not affirm when ; for the connotation of the word mortal [pg 110] goes no farther than to the occurrence of the phenomenon at some time or other, leaving the precise time undecided. § 5.
— from A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) by John Stuart Mill

They permit the interest on their bonds to accumulate, until a foreclosure and sale on first mortgage bonds are necessary, and then, under a new name, but with the same persons as stockholders, the road is bought in and becomes profitable.
— from Monopolies and the People by D. C. Cloud

The next day Russ and Laddie asked if they could go fishing in the creek, if they went to one place and stayed there, so they might not wander away and be lost.
— from Six Little Bunkers at Uncle Fred's by Laura Lee Hope

Mittens took the gold watch and chain, the flashing pin and studs, the beautiful diamond ring and put them all on, glaring defiantly at his crew as he did so.
— from The Wonderful Bed by Gertrude Knevels

While these matters were thus going on in broad daylight, news was brought to the emperor, who was full of watchful care, that the legionary soldiers to whom the digging of the mines had been intrusted, having hollowed out their subterranean paths and supported them with stout stakes, had now reached the bottom of the foundations of the walls, and were ready to issue forth if he thought fit.
— from The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Ammianus Marcellinus