He had just compunction enough for having done nothing for his sisters himself, to be exceedingly anxious that everybody else should do a great deal; and an offer from Colonel Brandon, or a legacy from Mrs. Jennings, was the easiest means of atoning for his own neglect.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Those who have made fortunes by the revolution (for very few have been able to preserve them) now begin to exhibit equipages; and they hope to render the people blind to this departure from their visionary systems of equality, by foregoing the use of arms and liveries—as if the real difference between the rich and the poor was not constituted rather by essential accommodation, than extrinsic embellishments, which perhaps do not gratify the eyes of the possessor a second time, and are, probably of all branches of luxury, the most useful.
— from A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part IV., 1795 Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners by Charlotte Biggs

The church had been erected at the Eastern end of an enclosure, the centre of which was dominated by the barrow.
— from Byways in British Archaeology by Walter Johnson

You can easily imagine that a person arriving at Paris on the night preceding, without being told beforehand, without knowing anything of the habits, customs, and dispositions of those before whom he appeared, and who was in a measure considered responsible for the bad success of the negotiations so far as they had been carried, must, at the sight of such grandeur, as imposing as it was unexpected, have felt not only profound emotion, but even a too evident embarrassment."
— from World's Best Histories — Volume 7: France by François Guizot

[260] It must constantly be borne in mind that the ancients never stereotyped their Ideal, hence there was invariably a vagueness about the form and features of prehistoric Joy, and Shakespeare’s reference to Dan Cupid as a “senior-junior, giant-dwarf,” may be equally applied to every Elf and Pixy.
— from Archaic England An Essay in Deciphering Prehistory from Megalithic Monuments, Earthworks, Customs, Coins, Place-names, and Faerie Superstitions by Harold Bayley

"They began early, and they ended early.
— from Mark Twain: A Biography. Volume III, Part 2: 1907-1910 by Albert Bigelow Paine

Whether the conditions would be improved by giving them their own Parliament, could only be determined by experiment; and that experiment England is not yet willing to try.
— from A Short History of England, Ireland and Scotland by Mary Platt Parmele

The notion that the attraction of a mountain, if it existed, would cause a slight deviation of the plumb-line, which should be perceptible in its effect on the observed position of the stars, had been entertained, and the effect even suspected, but without being reduced to absolute proof.
— from The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 6 (of 7) by Arthur Thomas Malkin

But more attractive to the girl than all this display were a number of altars which had been erected at the extreme edge of the great square, and on each of which a fire was burning.
— from A Thorny Path — Volume 04 by Georg Ebers

Commanded by Brigadier-General William Carr (afterwards Viscount) Beresford, this ill-advised and ill-fated expedition at first met with considerable success—a bloodless landing being effected, and the enemy easily broken and dispersed, all promised to go well.
— from History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army by Archibald K. Murray