I beg your pardon, answered my father; I was reading, though not using, one of them to my brother Toby this morning, whilst he pour’d out the tea—’tis here upon the 7 shelf over my head;—but if I remember right, ’tis too violent for a cut of the thumb.—Not at all, quoth Dr. Slop —the devil take the fellow.——Then, answered my father, ’Tis much at your service, Dr. Slop —on condition you will read it aloud;——so rising up and reaching down a form of excommunication of the church of Rome, a copy of which, my father (who was curious in his collections) had procured out of the leger-book of the church of Rochester, writ by E RNULPHUS the bishop——with a most affected seriousness of look and voice, which might have cajoled E RNULPHUS himself—he put it into Dr. Slop ’s hands.——Dr.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their valor, and their abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia, India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.
— 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

I do not know why I should not as willingly embrace either the ideas of Plato, or the atoms of Epicurus, or the plenum or vacuum of Leucippus and Democritus, or the water of Thales, or the infinity of nature of Anaximander, or the air of Diogenes, or the numbers and symmetry of Pythagoras, or the infinity of Parmenides, or the One of Musus, or the water and fire of Apollodorus, or the similar parts of Anaxagoras, or the discord and friendship of Empedocles, or the fire of Heraclitus, or any other opinion of that infinite confusion of opinions and determinations, which this fine human reason produces by its certitude and clearsightedness in every thing it meddles withal, as I should the opinion of Aristotle upon this subject of the principles of natural things; which principles he builds of three pieces—matter, form, and privation.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

I beg your pardon, answered my father; I was reading, though not using, one of them to my brother Toby this morning, whilst he pour'd out the tea—'tis here upon the shelf over my head;—but if I remember right, 'tis too violent for a cut of the thumb.—Not at all, quoth Dr. Slop—the devil take the fellow.—Then, answered my father, 'Tis much at your service, Dr. Slop—on condition you will read it aloud;—so rising up and reaching down a form of excommunication of the church of Rome, a copy of which, my father (who was curious in his collections) had procured out of the leger-book of the church of Rochester, writ by Ernulphus the bishop—with a most affected seriousness of look and voice, which might have cajoled Ernulphus himself—he put it into Dr. Slop's hands.—Dr.
— from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

Mordaunt knelt down and fastened one end of the train to the spigot, in order that he might have nothing to do but to set it on fire at the opposite end with the match.
— from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

The Greeks divide these into different treatises and distinct books; but they do it for the sake of employment: not but that all such discussions are full of entertainment.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

If they would only show a little decision at first, one emphatic "No" might silence their solicitors forever.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

He would begin by gingerly dropping a few on each platter, from a 30 sufficient height to safeguard himself from contamination [9] —like unwilling favours, wrested from the gods by dint of importunity, did they descend, so dexterously inhospitable was he.
— from My Reminiscences by Rabindranath Tagore

And since death must be the Lucina of life, and even Pagans could doubt whether thus to live, were to die; Since our longest Sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in darknesse, and have our light in ashes; Since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying memento’s , and time that grows old it self, bids us hope no long duration: Diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation.
— from The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3 by Browne, Thomas, Sir

Away backward or sidewise stretched the woodshed from the dwelling to the barn, and shut the whole under one cover; the turf grew to the wheel-tracks of the road-way, over which the elms rose and drooped; and from one end of the village to the other you could not, as the saying is, find a stone to throw at a dog.
— from Short Stories and Essays (from Literature and Life) by William Dean Howells

With their skill in husbandry they combined a familiarity with various kinds of handicraft, especially those requiring dexterity and fineness of execution, that was unknown to the Spaniards.
— from History of the Reign of Philip the Second King of Spain, Vol. 3 And Biographical & Critical Miscellanies by William Hickling Prescott

But in this contest the German naval authorities have at their disposal a fleet of extraordinary efficiency, and have devised for use on an extended scale the most formidable and destructive of all instruments of marine warfare.
— from Towards the Goal by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

Cheery birds would roll up to pass the time of day, and festive old eggs would toddle over to have coffee and so forth, and all that sort of thing.
— from Jill the Reckless by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

So, to compare lesser things with greater, it is possible and advisable to discard all feeling of ecclesiasticism (so to term it) when speaking of ecclesiastical antiquities.
— from Ecclesiastical Vestments: Their development and history by Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister

They entered that day a forest of extraordinary grandeur, almost clear of undergrowth and with illimitable rows of mighty oak and beech trees.
— from The Young Trailers: A Story of Early Kentucky by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

In private life he was a hard drinker and fond of every form of pleasure.
— from Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 1 by Lyndon Orr