Being come thither, I made up to the mourners, and bidding them a good journey, I took leave and back again, and setting my wife into a hackney out of Bishopsgate Street, I sent her home, and I to the ‘Change and Auditor Beale about his business.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Lucretius indeed, with such material as Epicurus furnished, satisfied himself with the theory of a vast machine fortuitously constructed, and acting by a Law that implied no Legislator; and so composing himself into a Stoical rather than Epicurean severity of Attitude, sat down to contemplate the mechanical drama of the Universe which he was part Actor in; himself and all about him (as in his own sublime description of the Roman Theater) discolored with the lurid reflex of the Curtain suspended between the Spectator and the Sun.
— from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam

Formerly, too, tyrannies were more common than now, on account of the very extensive powers with which some magistrates were entrusted: as the prytanes at Miletus; for they were supreme in many things of the last consequence; and also because at that time the cities were not of that very great extent, the people in general living in the country, and being employed in husbandry, which gave them, who took the lead in public affairs, an opportunity, if they had a turn for war, to make themselves tyrants; which they all did when they had gained the confidence of the people; and this confidence was their hatred to the rich.
— from Politics: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle

Some are so low that they can with ease take such food as is to be found on the ground; but the taller, as geese, swans, cranes, and camels, are assisted by a length of neck.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

The next is the Weavers’ hall, which company hath been of great antiquity in this city, as appeareth by a charter of Henry II., in these words, Rex omnibus ad quos , etc., to be Englished thus:—“Henrie, king of England, duke of [256] Normandie, and of Guian, Earl of Anjou, to the bishop, justices, shiriffes, barons, ministers, and all his true lieges of London, sendeth greeting:
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

The horses, too, after their manner, are eager for the race; their limbs tremble, and, impatient of delay, they cannot stand still; upon the signal being given, they stretch out their limbs, hurry over the course, and are borne along with unremitting speed.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Peters and Augustus, not being able to restrain their appetite, swallowed theirs upon the instant; but I was more cautious, and ate but a small portion of mine, dreading the thirst which I knew would ensue.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition Table Of Contents And Index Of The Five Volumes by Edgar Allan Poe

Her voice was as clear as a bell, and full of wifely solicitude.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

And what a miracle, incessantly renewed, was that of Heaven deigning to descend into human flesh, of the Deity fixing His abode in His chosen servant, whom He consecrated above and beyond all others, endowing him with all power and all science!
— from The Three Cities Trilogy: Rome, Volume 3 by Émile Zola

The first thing that my client is supposed to have said or done in connection with this case, as alleged by a witness, that he said Dr. Cronin ought not to be put on the trial committee to try Alexander Sullivan.
— from The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin by Henry M. Hunt

In April the commissioners arrived at Boston, and their communications with the general court commenced.
— from The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War which Established the Independence of his Country and First President of the United States by John Marshall

"I have learned since leaving Beaufort that the reputed mate is the real captain; that he is a Captain Long, the outdoor agent of Major Walker (the Confederate agent at Bermuda), a citizen of New York, and having formerly commanded a ship from there.
— from Derelicts: An Account of Ships Lost at Sea in General Commercial Traffic And a Brief History of Blockade Runners Stranded Along the North Carolina Coast, 1861-1865 by James Sprunt

[113] Courtesy of Berkey and Gay Figure 217.—Carved and Accented Border and Triple Carved Band Figure 206 shows a design varied from formal balance over a central axis of symmetry or an inceptive axis.
— from Industrial Arts Design A Textbook of Practical Methods for Students, Teachers, and Craftsmen by William H. (William Harrison) Varnum

Falling asleep at last, I regained a part of my courage, and at breakfast a faint glow of hope crept into my thinking.
— from A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland

But, since material continuity is now justly considered as a baseless and irrational hypothesis, as our readers know, the compenetration of infinite places with one another becomes an impossibility.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 21, April, 1875, to September, 1875 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

She saw a staff of Hebe-like waitresses in blue chambray and pink ribbons, to match the chinaware, and all bearing a marked resemblance to herself in her last flattering photograph, moving among a crowd of well brought up but palpably impoverished young people,—mostly social workers and artists.
— from Outside Inn by Ethel M. (Ethel May) Kelley

Ere he won heaven, and the breath of cows Came as a benediction, and the smell Of rain-sweet copses, and, where cattle browse, Long grass, and running water in the dell.
— from Poems of London, and Other Verses by John Presland