It can easily be imagined that such would always be the case at a period when the people were so strictly forbidden to destroy game; and therefore hunting was practised at all seasons in the woods and fields in the vicinity of each abbey.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

Full of the prerogatives of rank and nobility, she could not conceive it was possible an ambassador could ever be in the wrong with respect to his secretary.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I am ignorant if these remarks are new, or if they will be confirmed by closer examination; but I think, that, on a hasty observation, Coningsburgh offers means of curious study to those who may wish to trace the history of architecture back to the times preceding the Norman Conquest.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott

Petrarch and Boccaccio did diplomatic messages, it seems, quite well: one can easily believe it; they had done things a little harder than these!
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle

There are certain excuses, but in the main Mr. Wilcox is to blame, as Meg herself admitted.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

If it has not proceeded from accidental circumstances, it is almost impossible that the knowledge of it should not have an effect on the judgment passed on events which have preceded it, for we see these things in the light of this result, and it is to a certain extent by it that we first become acquainted with them and appreciate them.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

“The only way to bring him round would be to show him what was for his own interest, and that the captain may do—that the captain may do.” “Nay, I don't know,” said Adam; “the squire's 'cute enough but it takes something else besides 'cuteness to make folks see what'll be their interest in the long run.
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot

Only a mother and deadborn child ever buried in the one coffin.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

xliv. note), and would be useless, if men could easily, be induced to live by the guidance of reason only, as I will now briefly, show.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

Our fathers accepted it in as good faith as any Christian ever believed in the gospel of Christ, and so it had a similar influence in moulding the social, religious, political and literary life of our ancestors.
— from The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

In recent herniæ the differential diagnosis is comparatively easy, but in those {236} of old standing and large size, in which the obliquity of the canal has been much diminished, it is almost impossible to tell of what kind the hernia originally was, and consequently to determine in which direction it is safe to incise the neck of the sac.
— from A Manual of the Operations of Surgery For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners by Joseph Bell

Certain eminent botanists incline to the belief that the two are different varieties of one species, inasmuch as even the timber of red spruce bears a close resemblance to that of the black spruce.
— from American Forest Trees by Henry H. Gibson

Because therefore these sad disturbances arose on both sides at one and the same time, we will here arrange our account of each separately in suitable order; relating first what took place in the East, and afterwards the war with the barbarians; since the chief events both in the West and the East occurred in the same months; lest, by any other plan, if we skipped over in haste from place to place, we should present only a confused account of everything, and so involve our whole narrative in perplexity and disorder.
— from The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens by Ammianus Marcellinus

"He is a plucky old fellow, and has given me many a good laugh at the way he snips bits out of the cats' ears; but I think you have been badly treated, and if you will bring me a nice marrow-bone, I'll see what I can do for you."
— from Harper's Young People, June 7, 1881 An Illustrated Weekly by Various

It can easily be imagined that this extraordinary adventure corrupted Frank Etheridge's mind, and his madly lascivious temperament is no longer a matter of surprise to the reader.
— from The Power of Mesmerism A Highly Erotic Narrative of Voluptuous Facts and Fancies by Anonymous

The phrase can easily be interpreted to mean that Beethoven found instruction in Förster’s chamber music which he heard at the soirées of Prince Lichnowsky and other art-patrons.
— from The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume I by Alexander Wheelock Thayer

The moral of this is common enough, but is the fable found elsewhere in a similar form ?
— from Notes and Queries, Number 184, May 7, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various

Le Vaillant, who first described this bird, supposed it a variety of his Coucou Edolio : but in this he was mistaken; the one being a Cuculus ; the other a Coccyzus .
— from Zoological Illustrations, Second Series, Volume 1 or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by William Swainson

It can easily be imagined that this remedy may have a very different effect from that proposed.
— from A Treatise on the Diseases Produced By Onanism, Masturbation, Self-Pollution, and Other Excesses. by L. (Léopold) Deslandes