Having for this latter purpose carved and painted them as ugly and bestial, it became further of importance that they should be represented as stupid and comparatively impotent.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

He's a nice simpleton, and a nice impertinent fellow to laugh at consultations and prescriptions, to attack the body of physicians, and to bring on his stage such venerable people as those gentlemen.
— from The Imaginary Invalid by Molière

As we shall see, each of the ceremonies concerns a particular totem, and in theory the rites which are connected with a totem can be performed only by the men of that totem.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

—Geikie. EXERCISE 11 ( §§ 89–96 , pp. 43–47 ) 1. Point out all the nouns in the possessive case, and parse them according to the model in § 112 .
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by George Lyman Kittredge

Then to talk of newes: that he thinks the want of money hath undone the King, for the Parliament will never give the King more money without calling all people to account, nor, as he believes, will ever make war again, but they will manage it themselves: unless, which I proposed, he would visibly become a severer inspector into his own business and accounts, and that would gain upon the Parliament yet: which he confesses and confirms as the only lift to set him upon his legs, but says that it is not in his nature ever to do.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

The soldiers seemed moved at her appeal; but looking at the chickens again they were tempted and one of them replied: "The rebellion must be suppressed if it takes the last chicken in the Confederacy," and proceeded to appropriate the last one.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant

I comforted him as well as I could, and promised to ask the captain to help him from the medicine-chest, and told him I had no doubt the captain would do what he could for him, as he had worked in our employ for several years, both on shore and aboard our vessels on the coast.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

He hopes by stronger efforts, by raising the remaining moral forces, by surpassing himself, or also by some fortunate chance that the next moment will bring a change, and pursues this as far as his courage and his judgment can agree.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

When we arrived, ten minutes later, he was parading pompously up and down and delivering commands to this and that and the other constable or jailer, and calling them Grand chamberlain, and Prince This and Prince That, and Admiral of the Fleet, Field Marshal in Command, and all such fustian, and was as happy as a bird.
— from The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories by Mark Twain

The chiefs accordingly promised that all the inhabitants should return to the town within the space of five days, as most of them had fled to the woods; and added, that they feared Cortes would elect a cazique to whom they might be averse in the room of him who had been killed in the recent attack.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

This conjecture is confirmed by the observation that the victims most commonly burned in modern bonfires have been cats, and that cats are precisely the animals into which, with the possible exception of hares, witches were most usually supposed to transform themselves.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

But though bodies, from the arrangement of their particles, have a tendency to absorb some rays, and reflect others, yet it is not natural to suppose, that bodies are so perfectly uniform in their arrangement, as to reflect only pure rays of one colour, and perfectly to absorb the others; it is found, on the contrary, that a body reflects, in great abundance, the rays which determine its colour, and the others in a greater or less degree, in proportion as they are nearer to or further from its own colour, in the order of refrangibility.
— from Conversations on Natural Philosophy, in which the Elements of that Science are Familiarly Explained by Mrs. (Jane Haldimand) Marcet

We did what we could, a prey to alarm as we were.
— from The Wouldbegoods: Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers by E. (Edith) Nesbit

But he determined that from this time he would devote his life and fortune to religion, and resolved to erect a church at Possagno, to adorn it with works of art, and to make it his own burial-place.
— from A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

The leaders of the different corps d'armée sent in the usual nobly worded proclamations, relating to the oppression of the Manchoo and their own mission to free and Christianize China; the success hitherto vouchsafed to their cause by the "Heavenly Father"; the earnest desire to enter into friendly relations with the "foreign brethren"; their wish to continue all present trade and to open the whole country up, &c. Now, at this time the political position of England with regard to the rebellion was as follows.
— from Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh: The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume II) by Augustus F. Lindley

Agias did not worship her; she was too winning; too cunning and pretty to attract the least reverence; but in her company the young Greek was insensibly raised pinnacles above the murky moral atmosphere in which most men and youths of his station walked.
— from A Friend of Cæsar: A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. by William Stearns Davis

The flowers of the moral world were doubtless intended to [357] scatter cheerfulness and pleasure there; and the woman who contributes nothing to the innocent amusement of mankind has renounced one purpose of her being.
— from Discipline by Mary Brunton

My Lord,—In obedience to your lordship’s commands, as well as to satisfy my own curiosity, I have for some days past inquired constantly after Partridge the almanack-maker, of whom it was foretold in Mr. Bickerstaff’s predictions, published about a month ago, that he should die the 29th instant, about eleven at night, of a raging fever.
— from The Battle of the Books, and other Short Pieces by Jonathan Swift

The birds came and picked them, and carried the seeds away to grow.
— from The Sun's Babies by Edith Howes

How often have I stood haggling on a half penny, lest, by a too ready acquiescence in the dealer's first price, he should be led to suspect the value I set upon the article!—how have I trembled, lest some passing stranger should chop in between me and the prize, and regarded each poor student of divinity that stopped to turn over the books at the stall as a rival amateur, or prowling bookseller in disguise!—And, then, Mr. Lovel, the sly satisfaction with which one pays the consideration, and pockets the article, affecting a cold indifference, while the hand is trembling with pleasure!'
— from The Country of Sir Walter Scott by Charles S. (Charles Sumner) Olcott