Ay , sb. egg, G, HD; ayren , pl. , MD; see Ey .
— from A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580 by A. L. (Anthony Lawson) Mayhew

And once the novelist has brought us to that state, in which, as in all purely mental states, every emotion is multiplied ten-fold, into which his book comes to disturb us as might a dream, but a dream more lucid, and of a more lasting impression than those which come to us in sleep; why, then, for the space of an hour he sets free within us all the joys and sorrows in the world, a few of which, only, we should have to spend years of our actual life in getting to know, and the keenest, the most intense of which would never have been revealed to us because the slow course of their development stops our perception of them.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

It is true that in a perfect moral state emotion will be rare, but then this will have been gained by regular process, being the legitimate result of the law that “passive impressions weaken as active habits are strengthened, by repetition.”
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle

If a marriage ceremony is a religious thing, it is possibly wrong; but if it is only a sordid contract, based on material convenience in householding, rating, and taxing, and the inheritance of land and money by children, making it necessary that the male parent should be known—which it seems to be—why surely a person may say, even proclaim upon the housetops, that it hurts and grieves him or her?"
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

[This is a pure myth (Smith, EHI , 385, 413).] 30 .
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

A new ministry was formed from among the ablest men of the party—a ministry of radical and progressive men seldom equaled in moral purpose and intellectual strength.
— from The Old World and Its Ways Describing a Tour Around the World and Journeys Through Europe by William Jennings Bryan

He was, however, a man of ready wit and jovial humor; he was an accomplished courtier, understood the weak points of men that might be touched to advantage, and possessed manners so engaging, that he passed through life a social favorite.
— from Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art, (Vol. 2 of 3) by Shearjashub Spooner

Commenting upon which emendation of Medhâtithi, the editor remarks: “the five elements plus mind [ Manas ] and self-consciousness [ Ahamkâra ] 489 are probably meant; ‘subtile elements,’ as before [meaning] ‘fine portions of form’ [or principles].”
— from The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 of 4 by H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky

2. Servitude to a particular mill, S. Erskine.
— from An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language in which the words are explained in their different senses, authorized by the names of the writers by whom they are used, or the titles of the works in which they occur, and deduced from their originals by John Jamieson

The most constant mark of the abdomen is a pointed middle spot extending as far as the middle of the back.
— from The Common Spiders of the United States by J. H. (James Henry) Emerton

Prime and primary may signify either first in time, or more frequently first in importance; primary has also the sense of elementary or preparatory; we speak of a prime minister, a primary school.
— from English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by James Champlin Fernald

As Pastor Marzial speaks English well, I clung to him in the hope of having him for an interpreter; but he encouraged me to speak as well as I could in French, as the natives like it much better, and consider it a compliment to their language.
— from Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel by John Yeardley

Ne'er did fond mother to her darling son, Or zealous spouse to her belovèd mate, Sage counsel give, in perilous estate, With such kind caution, in such tender tone, As gives that fair one, who, oft looking down On my hard exile from her heavenly seat, With wonted kindness bends upon my fate Her brow, as friend or parent would have done: Now chaste affection prompts her speech, now fear, Instructive speech, that points what several ways To seek or shun, while journeying here below; Then all the ills of life she counts, and prays My soul ere long may quit this terrene sphere: And by her words alone I'm soothed and freed from woe.
— from The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch by Francesco Petrarca