In his retreat at Capri 344 , he also contrived an apartment containing couches, and adapted to the secret practice of abominable lewdness, where he entertained companies of girls and catamites, and assembled from all quarters inventors of unnatural copulations, whom he called Spintriae, who defiled one another in his presence, to inflame by the exhibition the languid appetite.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

To the Spectator , The humble Petition of John Steward , Robert Butler , Harry Cook , and Abigail Chambers , in Behalf of themselves and their Relations, belonging to and dispersed in the several Services of most of the great Families within the Cities of London and Westminster ; Sheweth, That in many of the Families in which your Petitioners live and are employed, the several Heads of them are wholly unacquainted with what is Business, and are very little Judges when they are well or ill used by us your said Petitioners.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Steele, Richard, Sir

Capt. C. found the road along the coast extreemly difficult of axcess, lying over some high rough and stoney hills, one of which he discribes as being much higher than the others, having it's base washed by the Ocean over which it rares it's towering summit perpendicularly to the hight of 1500 feet; from this summit Capt. C. informed me that there was a delightfull and most extensive view of the Ocean, the coast and adjacent country; this Mout.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

This practice of observing strict chastity as a condition of success in hunting and fishing is very common among rude races; and the instances of it which have been cited render it probable that the rule is always based on a superstition rather than on a consideration of the temporary weakness which a breach of the custom may entail on the hunter or fisherman.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

A system, to be a system at all, must come as a closed system, reversible in this or that detail, perchance, but in its essential features never!
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

Because Smerdyakov is a man of the most abject character and a coward.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The better to settle this question he referred to the bill again, and finding that there was a Baron in the first piece, and that Roberto (his son) was enacted by one Master Crummles, and Spaletro (his nephew) by one Master Percy Crummles— their last appearances—and that, incidental to the piece, was a characteristic dance by the characters, and a castanet pas seul by the Infant Phenomenon— her last appearance—he no longer entertained any doubt; and presenting himself at the stage-door, and sending in a scrap of paper with ‘Mr. Johnson’ written thereon in pencil, was presently conducted by a Robber, with a very large belt and buckle round his waist, and very large leather gauntlets on his hands, into the presence of his former manager.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

This cross in West Cheape being like to those other which remain to this day, and being by length of time decayed, John Hatherly, mayor of London, procured, in the year 1441, license of King Henry VI. to re-edify the same in more beautiful manner for the honour of the city, and had license also to take up two hundred fodder of lead for the building thereof of certain conduits, and a common garnery.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

One man came forward as a Chief and I had to tell him unless you have twenty tents you cannot continue as a Chief.
— from The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories Including the Negotiations on Which They Were Based, and Other Information Relating Thereto by Alexander Morris

Well, one night not [206] long before the gathering took place in Teddy's house, Big Flower was passing through the toughest portion of his bailiwick, humming ragtime, when my new acquaintances, the three strong-arm workers from the West, stuck him up with cannisters, and relieved him of a five carat diamond stud, a gold watch and chain and a considerable amount of cash.
— from The Autobiography of a Thief by Hutchins Hapgood

The enemy’s vessels came out of the harbour between 9.35 and 10 A. M. , the head of the column appearing around Cay Smith at 9.31, and emerging from the channel five or six minutes later.
— from The Boys of '98 by James Otis

If you compared [629] yourself to a contortionist at a country fair I'm only taking my cue from you."
— from The Tragic Muse by Henry James

When the rumor went about on August 16 that Dunmore was going to attack Williamsburg, the Convention appointed a Committee of Public Safety of 11 members.
— from The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 by Virginia. History, Government, and Geography Service

The water will modify the hygrometric state of the air around; or, if the current of hot gases containing it come against a cold body, will be condensed: altering the temperature, and perhaps the chemical state, of the surface it covers.
— from Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects Everyman's Library by Herbert Spencer

The image of Mary crying as a child cries suddenly blinded me and blotted out the world.
— from The Passionate Friends by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

Tommy Garton he found as cheerful as a cricket and heartily glad to see him.
— from Under Handicap A Novel by Jackson Gregory