But their new subjects were soon disgusted with the vices or virtues which they had imbibed in a foreign land; the instability of their dominion gave birth to a vulgar observation, that the choice of Rome was solicited and rejected with equal ardor by the capricious levity of Oriental slaves.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

The Assistant Commissioner, as though he were a member of the criminal classes, lingered out of sight, awaiting his return.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

Then [332] Cocke lane out of Smithfield, over-against Pie corner, then also is Giltspur street, out of Smithfield to Newgate, then from Newgate west by St. Sepulchres church to Turnagaine lane, to Oldborne conduit, on Snow hill, to Oldborne bridge, up Oldborne hill to the bars on both sides.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Galen advises old men to use it with spice; and where spices are wanting, to add Mints, Rochet, and such like hot herbs, or else Citron Lemon, or Orange seeds, to abate the cold of one and heat of the other.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

And lord Anchises: "War dost thou carry, land of our sojourn; horses are armed in war, and menace of war is in this herd.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil

I soon recovered my composure, however, and, deriving some consolation from thinking of the heroes of old, who had been persecuted by the anger of the gods, I broke out in these lines:) Hostile gods and implacable rate not me alone pursue; Herakles once suffered the weight of heaven’s displeasure too Driven from the Inachian coast: Laomedon of old Sated two of the heavenly host: in Pelias, behold Juno’s power to avenge an affront; and Telephus took arms Knowing not he must bear the brunt; Ulysses feared the storms Angry Neptune decreed as his due.
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter

This day, at noon, comes Mr. Pelling to me, and shews me the stone cut lately out of Sir Thomas Adams’ (the old comely Alderman’s) body, which is very large indeed, bigger I think than my fist, and weighs above twenty-five ounces and, which is very miraculous, he never in all his life had any fit of it, but lived to a great age without pain, and died at last of something else, without any sense of this in all his life.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

A type of the Irish and Scottish Siren may be found in the very complete legend of one seen by John Reid, shipmaster of Cromarty.
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway

thou smilest no more, cried the corporal, looking on one side of him upon the ground, as if he apostrophised him in his dungeon.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

For here, amid stretches of light-green sugar-cane that seems destined ultimately to bring material prosperity to the country, lives one of South America’s greatest contributors to modern Spanish literature.
— from Working North from Patagonia Being the Narrative of a Journey, Earned on the Way, Through Southern and Eastern South America by Harry Alverson Franck

"This curious bead," says Sir Richard Hoare, "has two circular lines, of opaque sky-blue and white, and seems to represent a serpent entwined round a centre, which is perforated.
— from Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present by John Timbs

The hunt took place either on the moors above the Cauldshiels Loch, or over some of the hills on the estate of Gala, and we had commonly, ere we returned, hares enough to supply the wife of every farmer that attended, with soup for a week following.
— from Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 6 (of 10) by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart

In Germany idealism is dead, and there is no prophet either of Christian love or of self-sacrifice.
— from Stand Up, Ye Dead by Norman Maclean

And the temper is so essentially different in which men lend themselves to the propagation of defamatory anecdotes, the impulses are so various to an offence which is not always consciously perceived by those who are parties to it, that we cannot be too cautious of suffering our hatred of libel to involve every casual libeller, or of suffering our general respect for the person of the libeller to exonerate him from the charge of libelling.
— from The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Thomas De Quincey

The report will say that forty of the enemy were killed, one hundred and fifty wounded, and one hundred and twenty captured; loss on our side inconsiderable.
— from The Citizen-Soldier or, Memoirs of a Volunteer by John Beatty

Then came loss of office, six months of rustic retirement, watching for any change of the wind setting Saint-Germain-wards, then the bill of attainder, and the sudden flight of one who dared not face his accusers.
— from Mohawks: A Novel. Volume 1 of 3 by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

"For the past five years stories had been continually leaking out of Setoun's inhuman cruelty, his unscrupulous, fiendish tortures inflicted upon all those who displeased him, and how certain persons who stood in his way had died mysteriously or disappeared, no one knew whither.
— from The House of Whispers by William Le Queux

Malines, with its historic buildings and its famous cathedral, lies on one side of this line and the village of Vilvorde on the other, five miles separating them.
— from Fighting in Flanders by E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell