There are rough outlines in nature; there are, in creation, ready-made parodies; a beak which is not a beak, wings which are not wings, gills which are not gills, paws which are not paws, a cry of pain which arouses a desire to laugh, there is the duck. — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
all right of inheriting not to
That nobleman represented to the prince, whom youth and an infirm state of health made susceptible of any impression, that his two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, had both of them been declared illegitimate by act of parliament; and though Henry by his will had restored them to a place in the succession, the nation would never submit to see the throne of England filled by a bastard: that they were the king’s sisters by the half blood only; and even if they were legitimate, could not enjoy the crown as his heirs and successors: that the queen of Scots stood excluded by the late king’s will; and being an alien, had lost by law all right of inheriting; not to mention that, as she was betrothed to the dauphin, she would, by her succession, render England, as she had already done Scotland, a province to France: that the certain consequence of his sister Mary’s succession, or that of the queen of Scots was the abolition of the Protestant religion, and the repeal of the laws enacted in favor of the reformation, and the reëstabishment of the usurpation and idolatry of the church of Rome, that, fortunately for England, the same order of succession which justice required, was also the most conformable to public interest; and there was not on any side any just ground for doubt or deliberation: that when these three princesses were excluded by such solid reasons, the succession devolved on the marchioness of Dorset, elder daughter of the French queen and the duke of Suffolk: that the next heir of the marchioness was the lady Jane Gray, a lady of the most amiable character, accomplished by the best education, both in literature and religion, and every way worthy of a crown; and that even if her title by blood were doubtful, which there was no just reason to pretend, the king was possessed of the same power that his father enjoyed, and might leave her the crown by letters patent. — from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C.
From Henry VII. to Mary by David Hume
Mr. Hastings was then openly supported by a majority of the Court of Proprietors, who professed to entertain a good opinion of his general ability and rectitude of intention, notwithstanding the unanimous censure passed upon him. — from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
His father was at that time King of Alba—a region of Italy near the spot on which Rome was subsequently built—and the accident brought Brutus under such suspicions, and exposed him to such dangers, that he fled from the country. — from King Alfred of England
Makers of History by Jacob Abbott
The preparation and serving of meals, the airing of clothes and the ironing of them, the washing of the children, the mending and making—how could a woman do any of it with comfort in the cramped apartment, into which, moreover, a tired and dirty man came home in the evening to eat and wash and rest, or if not to rest, then to potter in and out from garden or pig-stye, "treading in dirt" as he came? — from Change in the Village by George Sturt
are running off it now to
But how much water it might grow, you may judge roughly for yourself, by remembering how many brooks like this are running off it now to carry mere dirt into the river, and then into the sea.” — from Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays by Charles Kingsley
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