There was in Olympia an antient temple, esteemed a famous seat of prophecy, in which Iamus is supposed to have first presided; and where the will of the Deity was made manifest by the sacred fire upon the altar: this kind of divination is still carried on by a set of priests, who are called Iamidæ.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. by Jacob Bryant

Thus it is, as I believe, that when the males and females of any animal have the same general habits of life, but differ in structure, colour, or ornament, such differences have been mainly caused by sexual selection: that is, by individual males having had, in successive generations, some slight advantage over other males, in their weapons, means of defence, or charms; which they have transmitted to their male offspring alone.
— 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

A Scythian chief, who commanded their right wing, suddenly turned the flank of the enemy, attacked their rear-guard in the presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the midst of the camp, pillaged the royal tent, profaned the eternal fire, loaded a train of camels with the spoils of Asia, cut his way through the Persian host, and returned with songs of victory to his friends, who had consumed the day in single combats, or ineffectual skirmishes.
— 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

" Dorothy did not say anything, for she was puzzled to know which of her two friends was right, and she decided if she could only get back to Kansas and Aunt Em, it did not matter so much whether the Woodman had no brains and the Scarecrow no heart, or each got what he wanted.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

Tell me, then, how do you propose to end this present fighting?" Apollo, son of Jove, replied, "Let us incite great Hector to challenge some one of the Danaans in single combat; on this the Achaeans will be shamed into finding a man who will fight him.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Satan must have occasionally crouched down in some corner of the hovel in which Thénardier dwelt, and have fallen a-dreaming in the presence of this hideous masterpiece.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The animals had also perished in the catastrophe; the birds, as well as those representing the fauna of the island—all either crushed or drowned, and the unfortunate Jup himself had, alas! found his death in some crevice of the soil.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

I loved you, Atthis—spring of long ago— Watched you depart, to Andromeda go; Then I, as keen despair its shadow cast, O'er my deserted threshold, sobbing, passed.
— from The Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English by Sappho

We passed a picturesque monk in his robe of brown serge, with a fine face and shaven crown; and a squinting specimen of the same species, who, I think, chose the cowl that it might serve for veil at need, he drew it so closely over his face when I asked him a question.
— from A Ride on Horseback to Florence Through France and Switzerland. Vol. 2 of 2 Described in a Series of Letters by a Lady by Augusta Macgregor Holmes

Despite the liberties just described, the organization of the work follows Pumpurs's original division into six cantos of widely differing lengths.
— from Bearslayer A free translation from the unrhymed Latvian into English heroic verse by Andrejs Pumpurs

The dress was made of the same material as that of the natives,—a dark blue cloth, patterned with wavy black lines; but it differed in shape, consisting of a pair of loose trousers gathered into a waistband, and confined there with a coloured handkerchief, just such as young men in England tie over their cricketing flannels.
— from Ralph Denham's Adventures in Burma: A Tale of the Burmese Jungle by G. (George) Norway

What really decided the battle was not the difference in ships, crews, or weapons, but the difference in aggressiveness and ability of the two admirals in command.
— from A History of Sea Power by William Oliver Stevens

Thus at the beginning of the new century we see the phenomenon of a single discovery in science completely overturning certain carefully worked out calculations, although not changing the great principles involved.
— from A History of Science — Volume 5 by Edward Huntington Williams

This proclamation having been made by the herald, the whole multitude both of the heathen and Jews who dwelt in Smyrna cried out with uncontrollable fury and in a loud voice: "This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians and the overthrower of our gods, he who has been teaching many not to sacrifice or to worship the gods."
— from The Transformation of Early Christianity from an Eschatological to a Socialized Movement A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Literature in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Lyford P. (Lyford Paterson) Edwards