I moreover, desiring to know something certain of these matters so far as might be, made a voyage also to Tyre of Phenicia, hearing that in that place there was a holy temple of Heracles; and I saw that it was richly furnished with many votive offerings besides, and especially there were in it two pillars, the one of pure gold and the other of an emerald stone of such size as to shine by night: and having come to speech with the priests of the god, I asked them how long a time it was since their temple had been set up: and these also I found to be at variance with the Hellenes, for they said that at the same time when Tyre was founded, the temple of the god also had been set up, and that it was a period of two thousand three hundred years since their people began to dwell at Tyre.
— from An Account of Egypt by Herodotus

Secondly, That the Prisoners might not be ignorant whereon to answer , and so have all fair Advantages, to excuse and defend themselves; the Court farther agreed with Justice and Equanimity, to hear any Evidence that could be brought, to weaken or corroborate the three Circumstances that compleat a Pyrate; first, being a Voluntier amongst them at the Beginning; secondly, being a Voluntier at the taking or robbing of any Ship; or lastly, voluntarily accepting a Share in the Booty of those that did; for by a Parity of Reason, where these Actions were of their own disposing, and yet committed by them, it must be believed their Hearts and Hands joyned together, in what they acted against his Majesty’s Ship the Swallow.
— from A General History of the Pyrates: from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence, to the present time by Daniel Defoe

At last, however, after much bickering and ill-will, it was agreed, at Amsterdam, by the assembled deputies, that all contracts made in the height of the mania, or prior to the month of November 1636, should be declared null and void, and that, in those made after that date, purchasers should be freed from their engagements, on paying ten per cent to the vendor.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

AN EXPERIMENT IN LOVE Many poets think that nature is incomplete without women, and hence, doubtless, come all the flowery comparisons which, in their songs, make our natural companion in turn a rose, a violet, a tulip, or something of that order.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

But now Herod's distemper greatly increased upon him after a severe manner, and this by God's judgment upon him for his sins; for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or other.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

Attempting to commit violence upon Latona, he was slain by the arrows of Apollo, and precipitated to the infernal regions, where he was condemned to have his liver constantly devoured by a vulture, and then renewed, to perpetuate his torments.
— from The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII by Ovid

Not far from Mr. Stanton's house, a lesser edifice of brick of comparatively late date on the north side of Richmond Street, immediately opposite the premises associated just now with the memory of President Smith, may be noted as having been built and occupied by the distinguished Admiral Vansittart, and the first example in this region of a cottage furnished with light, tasteful verandahs in the modern style.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

Olaf Haraldson was born 995, went as a viking at the age of twelve, 1007; visited England, one summer and three winters, 1009-1012; in France two summers and one winter, 1012-1013; spent the winter in Normandy, 1014; returned to Norway and was recognized as King, April 3, 1015; fled from Norway the winter of 1028-1029; fell at Stiklestad, July 29 (or August 31), 1030.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Tigers box like pugilists, and bite like French school-boys; and buffaloes fight clumsily, violently, and vindictively, after the manner of their kind.”—
— from Malay Magic Being an introduction to the folklore and popular religion of the Malay Peninsula by Walter William Skeat

Next day, the impudent fellow told me that he would order us a good supper at Viterbo, and that of course I would lend him a sequin to pay for his dinner at Montefiascone.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

While any coastal migrant black-throated green warbler would probably be referable to it, as virens appears to keep to the interior when travelling north, as a matter of fact there are almost no records of migratory occurrences.
— from Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers, Part One and Part Two by Arthur Cleveland Bent

About this time the disputes concerning the oaths of allegiance and supremacy being agitated, Mr. Donne by his Majesty's special command, wrote a treatise on that subject, entitled, Pseudo Martyr, printed in 4to, 1610, with which his Majesty was highly pleased, and being firmly resolved to promote him in the church, he pressed him to enter into holy orders, but he being resolved to qualify himself the better for the sacred office by studying divinity, and the learned languages deferred his entering upon it three years longer, during which time he made a vigorous application to these branches of knowledge, and was then ordained both deacon and priest, by Dr. John King, then bishop of London.
— from The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I. by Theophilus Cibber

He told me that he was a Venetian, and that his name, as nearly as I could collect, was signor Francesco Zampieri.
— from St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by William Godwin

Bright red flowers are very attractive to butterflies, and are sometimes specially adapted to be fertilised by them, as in many pinks (Dianthus deltoides, D. superbus, D. atrorubens), the corn-cockle (Lychnis Githago), and many others.
— from Darwinism (1889) An exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications by Alfred Russel Wallace

Climbing has strengthened the muscles of his legs into so much steel, and a party of herdsmen have been known to come down from the Serra to the plains around Velletri, and to return to their inaccessible mountains, after doing daring deeds of violence, in twenty-four hours from the time of starting, covering at least from eighty to ninety miles by the way.
— from A Roman Singer by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

The keen, humorous grey eyes beneath their black, arched brows were alertly vivacious, and the quite white hair served to enhance, rather than otherwise, the rose-leaf texture of her skin.
— from The House of Dreams-Come-True by Margaret Pedler

The book of Acts as a whole, however, stands for an ecclesiastical tendency in the second century to make out that the first apostles had not been divided; that Peter too was a preacher of Gentile Christism, to which he had been converted by a vision; and that Paul, in turn, had made concessions to [ 30 ] Judaism.
— from A Short History of Christianity Second Edition, Revised, With Additions by J. M. (John Mackinnon) Robertson

The second subdivision will deal with the origin of species and varieties as taught by experiment and observation, treating separately the sudden variations which to my mind do produce new forms, and subsequently the fluctuations which I hold to be not adequate to this purpose.
— from Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Hugo de Vries

He will be able to give you and Viola a tolerable home till you marry and make 74 better homes for yourselves, which it is actually incumbent upon you to do.'
— from A Strange World: A Novel. Volume 1 (of 3) by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon