The oldest case on record in China dates as far back as B.C. 677, when sixty-six men were killed after the ruler Wu of the state of Ts'in died.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

What are all our Anabaptists, Brownists, Barrowists, familists, but a company of rude, illiterate, capricious, base fellows?
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The laws governing inheritance are for the most part unknown; no one can say why the same peculiarity in different individuals of the same species, or in different species, is sometimes inherited and sometimes not so; why the child often reverts in certain characteristics to its grandfather or grandmother or more remote ancestor; why a peculiarity is often transmitted from one sex to both sexes, or to one sex alone, more commonly but not exclusively to the like sex.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

We may suppose Argaius to signify Mons cavus: or rather ignis cavitas , sive Vulcani domus , a name given from its being hollow, and at the same time a reservoir of fiery matter.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Jacob Bryant

Accordingly, though he was no chartist or radical, I consider Carlyle's by far the most indignant comment or protest anent the fruits of feudalism to-day in Great Britain—the increasing poverty and degradation of the homeless, landless twenty millions, while a few thousands, or rather a few hundreds, possess the entire soil, the money, and the fat berths.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

The laws governing inheritance are quite unknown; no one can say why the same peculiarity in different individuals of the same species, and in individuals of different species, is sometimes inherited and sometimes not so; why the child often reverts in certain characters to its grandfather or grandmother or other much more remote ancestor; why a peculiarity is often transmitted from one sex to both sexes or to one sex alone, more commonly but not exclusively to the like sex.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

If we want a striking picture of them we have only to read Lichtenberg's extract from a code of regulations in case of fire.
— from On War — Volume 1 by Carl von Clausewitz

Quoting from “A Collection of Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery,” London, 1724: “Panada for a Sick or Weak Stomach.
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius

A fourth factor in tracing the course of reproduction is congruity in emotional tone between the reproduced idea and our mood.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

Soon, as I got a little calmer and more capable of reasoning, I concluded that a corpse had been placed beside me whilst I slept, for I was certain it was not there when I lay down.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

The Cause of Reprobation is Christ not known by inward Revelation.
— from An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Being an explanation and vindication of the principles and doctrines of the people called Quakers by Robert Barclay

[Pg 53] To turn and meet his pursuers (who were evidently in contact with him through their scouts) would have meant, so long as he was on this side of the Somme, no chance of retreat in case of defeat.
— from Crécy by Hilaire Belloc

The natural conditions of reproducing individual capitals therefore neither conform with one another, nor do they conform to the relations of the total capital.
— from The Accumulation of Capital by Rosa Luxemburg

They are forbidden by the whole will and rights of their Master to be loud and "casual" in intercourse; to be moody and uncertain; to be difficult to please, easy to offend; to think it a small thing to speak the word to others which may wound, even lightly, with any wound but the really "faithful" one of a loving caution or reproof in Christ.
— from To My Younger Brethren: Chapters on Pastoral Life and Work by H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn) Moule

To remain at Strasburg was to be surrounded; to move over the mountains was to abandon our train at the outset, and to subject my command to flank attacks, without possibility of succor; and to attack the enemy in such overwhelming force could only result in certain destruction.
— from Experience of a Confederate States Prisoner Being an Ephemeris Regularly Kept by an Officer of the Confederate States Army by Beckwith West

The Jesuit who is so hopeful of Anglican re-union that he will not allow his favourite pupil to join the Church of Rome is called Sancta Clara.
— from Letters of Lord Acton to Mary, Daughter of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone by Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron

Altogether it was a most successful wedding and at the same time a fairly easy one to plan since there was no question of overcrowding in the house, although in case of rain it could have been managed there.
— from Entertaining Made Easy by Emily Rose Burt

Till midnight the solemn chants continued, the prolonged, sonorous prayers of the Church of Rome, in commingled Latin and Samoan.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 25 by Robert Louis Stevenson