Well do I remember the lofty expectations which he built on our alliance with Mustapha; and much do I fear, that this rash courage will urge the ruin of our house, and that even religion may precipitate our downfall."
— 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

And that every rank might acquire some additional strength from the new people, he formed ten troops of horsemen from among the Albans: he likewise recruited the old, and raised new legions from the same source.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

And therefore every Ray may be consider'd as having four Sides or Quarters, two of which opposite to one another incline the Ray to be refracted after the unusual manner, as often as either of them are turn'd towards the Coast of unusual Refraction; and the other two, whenever either of them are turn'd towards the Coast of unusual Refraction, do not incline it to be otherwise refracted than after the usual manner.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

From that sad valley [782] we our backs turned round, Up the encircling rampart making way Nor uttering, as we crossed it, any sound.
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

The expression really means that the better principle in a man masters the worse.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato

But the enemy relieved me from this necessity.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

"Not exactly that, either!" repeats Mr. Guppy.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Nicander and Marcian, two eminent Roman military officers, were apprehended on account of their faith.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

The earl chose the latter; for all those among his men who had great possessions in Norway, which was the case with many who were with him, were anxious to get back; and in the council they held about this, it was resolved that in winter they should take the land-way over Helsingjaland and Jamtaland, and so down into the Throndhjem land; for the earl reckoned most upon the faithful help and strength of the Throndhjem people of the interior as soon as he should appear there.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Think of what you experience on suddenly perceiving a shooting star: in this extremely rapid motion there is a natural and instinctive separation between the space traversed, which appears to you under the form of a line of fire, and the absolutely [Pg 112] indivisible sensation of motion or mobility.
— from Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness by Henri Bergson

The former ceased its opposition some time before election; the latter continued to the end, ridiculing, misrepresenting, denouncing, and even going to the extent of grossly caricaturing Miss Anthony.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2) Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years by Ida Husted Harper

Leaving the epidemic region may bring about gradual recovery.
— from The Animal Parasites of Man by Fred. V. (Frederick Vincent) Theobald

In the elaborate Report made in 1852 to the Senate by Gen. Rusk, as Chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads , of which Messrs. Soulé, Hamlin, Upham, and Morton were members, in speaking on this subject the Committee said: "Contracts to carry the ocean mail should, like all other contracts made by the Government, be the subjects of a fair competition, and granted with reference to the public good, due regard being had to the excellence of the proposals made, under all the circumstances of the cases which may present themselves.
— from Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post by Thomas Rainey

He had a few thousand regular cavalry left, but not enough to even retard materially the progress of Wilson's cavalry.
— from Project Gutenberg Edition of The Memoirs of Four Civil War Generals by John Alexander Logan

Before us score upon score of the great disks were lifting, and from the tunnel each revealed, monstrous rust-red bodies were pouring.
— from The Death-Traps of FX-31 by Sewell Peaslee Wright

—It will almost seem superfluous, after I have thus traced the important modifications in the condition of living beings which flow from changes of trifling extent, to argue that entire revolutions might be brought about, if the climate and physical geography of the whole globe were greatly altered.
— from Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

"These editors remind me of Allison," said Marcy.
— from Marcy the Blockade Runner by Harry Castlemon

And the whole structure is raised upon four wheels, one being attached to each upright beam, and men to the number of no fewer than fifty to each ram move it from the inside.
— from Procopius History of the Wars, Books V. and VI. by Procopius

The only result of the Gunpowder Treason was to make the lot of the English Romanists much harder than before, for the nation thought that most of them had been implicated in the plot, and Parliament greatly increased the harshness of the Recusancy laws.
— from A History of England Eleventh Edition by Charles Oman