As just a cause may be long absence of either party, when they must of necessity be much from home, as lawyers, physicians, mariners, by their professions; or otherwise make frivolous, impertinent journeys, tarry long abroad to no purpose, lie out, and are gadding still, upon small occasions, it must needs yield matter of suspicion, when they use their wives unkindly in the meantime, and never tarry at home, it cannot use but engender some such conceit.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The ability to discriminate one twenty-fourth of an inch by the tongue-tip may have been useful to the ape: no conceivable use being even suggested.
— from The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2) by Herbert Spencer

Soon after the Congress of Vienna, that combination of the great powers was consummated which contemporaries usually but erroneously styled the Holy Alliance.
— from Union and Democracy by Allen Johnson

Victor, coming up before evening, saw that the hill on the English left was but slightly occupied (by some mistake General Hill had not taken up his position), and tried to seize it by a coup de main .
— from Battles of English History by H. B. (Hereford Brooke) George

In the courts of justice, the criminal, his heart imbittered with torturing despair, and his soul torn with agonizing anguish, beholds his arms unshackled, his character unsullied by even suspicious glance, and futurity studded with honors, station and dignity.
— from The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834 by Various

During my occasional residence at New York, I was surprised to find myself so constantly called upon by English seamen, who had served under me in the different ships I had commanded since the peace.
— from Diary in America, Series One by Frederick Marryat

The whole being adapted for convenient use by Engineers, Surveyors, Contractors, and others needing Correct Measurements of Earthwork.
— from Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught Comprising instructions in the selection and preparation of drawing instruments, elementary instruction in practical mechanical drawing; together with examples in simple geometry and elementary mechanism, including screw threads, gear wheels, mechanical motions, engines and boilers by Joshua Rose

Yet more than ten thousand people were already seated in the banked-up tiers of seats, while others were crowding up by every stairway.
— from The Radio Boys with the Border Patrol by Gerald Breckenridge

Neglected aggravated cases are met with, in which the urine has passed entirely through the false passages for years, the urethra and penis, anterior to the stricture, being both rendered completely useless; but even such cases can, by proper management, be relieved, or permanently cured.
— from Elements of Surgery by Robert Liston

Then came the Temple Gardens, and after them the pile of buildings, with battlement and strong tower, called the Sanoye; after that, amongst many other important edifices, were to be seen the castellated towers of Duresme Place, York Place, the Courts, the Starre Chamber, Westminster Hall, with a sort of pier running out from the open court in front, and the Parliament House; then came the huge Abbey of Westminster, not as now, choked up by encroaching squalor, but standing in its magnificence in the midst of verdant meadows; and lastly came the Queen's Bridge.
— from William Shakespeare as He Lived: An Historical Tale by Henry Curling