In glowing terms he described the heroic struggle of Poland for liberty; the triumph and exultation that had filled every bosom during the few months they were free; the hardships and privations they had endured, the deeds of daring bravery of the men, the heroism it had awakened in the women; and then its fall—the return of the Russians; the horrible character of Russian despotism, its sternness and deceit, its pride and selfish ignorance; the loss of public and private integrity, the disbelief of good, the blighted, hopeless, joyless life endured by those whom it crushes beneath its servitude.
— from Tales and Stories Now First Collected by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Albeit that in my time I find a note of 2134 pounds sixtéene shillings thrée pence halfe penie farthing, whose disme ioined to those of all the bishopriks in England, doo yéeld yearelie to hir maiesties coffers 23370 pounds sixtéene shillings thrée pence halfe penie farthing: whereby also the huge sums of monie going out of this land to the court of Rome dooth in some measure appéere.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

Nevertheless one discovers fleeting words of revelation among these tortuosities and pretences, such as that of an a priori history (Fichte, Schelling, Krause, and, to a certain extent at least, Hegel), which should be true history, deduced from the pure concepts, or rendered divine in some vision of the seer of Patmos, a history which should [Pg 283] be more or less different from the confusion of human events and facts, as philosophical history, leaving outside it as refuse a merely narrative history, which should serve as raw material or as text for the sermons and precepts of the moralists and politicians.
— from Theory & History of Historiography by Benedetto Croce

I was gradually gaining an insight into the cause of religious division in Scotland, and the more I heard about the “Gentle Persuasion” the more was I drawn to admire their constancy and devotion.
— from The Gentle Persuasion: Sketches of Scottish Life by Alan Gray

Thurston, the abbot, was English-born, as were the monks under his pastoral charge; and long the cowled inmates of the abbey and the armed patriots of the Camp of Refuge dwelt in sweet accord.
— from Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 04 (of 15), English by Charles Morris