[6460] Ecstasy is a taste of future happiness, by which we are united unto God, a divine melancholy, a spiritual wing, Bonaventure terms it, to lift us up to heaven; but as it is abused, a mere dotage, madness, a cause and symptom of religious melancholy.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

He feign'd himself about to climb; Walk'd on his hinder legs sublime; Then death most aptly counterfeited, And seem'd anon resuscitated.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine

Now wilt thou leave thy dusty mill and come and join my band?
— from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

That Instant Pallas, bursting from a cloud, Fix'd a distinguish'd mark, and cried aloud: "E'en he who, sightless, wants his visual ray May by his touch alone award the day: Thy signal throw transcends the utmost bound Of every champion by a length of ground: Securely bid the strongest of the train Arise to throw; the strongest throws in vain."
— from The Odyssey by Homer

And being entertained with the pomp, and pastime of Festivalls, and publike Gomes, made in honour of the Gods, needed nothing else but bread, to keep them from discontent, murmuring, and commotion against the State.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Some day he expected to marry and set his wife up in a mansion in San Francisco, with seasons of rest and recreation at Del Monte and Coronado and the East.
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey

The indignation of the people imputed all their calamities to Gallienus, and the far greater part were indeed, the consequence of his dissolute manners and careless administration.
— 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

Accordingly, the next morning I dressed myself as clean and as neat as my rustic wardrobe would permit me; and having left my box, with special recommendation, with the landlady, I ventured out by myself, and without any more difficulty than can be supposed of a young country girl, barely fifteen, and to whom every sign or shop was a gazing trap, I got to the wished for intelligence office.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

He therefore resolved to steal a crossing by the following manœuvre:—In the night he led most of his cavalry along the bank in various directions, making a clamour and raising the battle-cry in honour of Enyalius.
— from The Anabasis of Alexander or, The History of the Wars and Conquests of Alexander the Great by Arrian

Old men and withered beldames stood on their dorsteps to watch the throng pass by, and I doubt not drew disparaging comparisons between the rush-cart of that day and those they had danced behind so trippingly when they were young and light of foot and heart; comely matrons dandled their babes in their arms, and held them aloft that their chubby fists might drop a coin into the rattling tin; sturdy urchins dodged about the labouring wheels of the groaning cart in a way to bring your heart into your mouth, till you remembered that a special Providence watches over drunken men and children; and, fairest sight of all, the pretty young lasses, all donned in their Sunday best, and wearing fragrant nosegays of every hue under the sun, ran by the waggon side with many a lilt of rustic melody.
— from Miriam: A Tale of Pole Moor and the Greenfield Hills by D. F. E. Sykes

His "Epistles," addressed to various distinguished men, and covering a period of four years, were copied after those of Horace; they were marked by great clearness, neatness of diction, and good sense, and by Pope's usual elegance and grace.
— from McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey

It is necessary that superior people first be made to desire marriage and children; and secondly, that it be economically and otherwise possible for them to carry out this desire.
— from Applied Eugenics by Roswell H. (Roswell Hill) Johnson

The whole “style” of the woman, however, her dress, manner, and conversation, are strong indications that her younger and more attractive days were not passed in a nunnery, but more probably in establishments where “Free Love” is more than a theory.
— from The Witches of New York by Q. K. Philander Doesticks

Becky in The Truth , and Jinny in The Girl with the Green Eyes , in so far as they are successfully drawn, really do mean a certain advance on our knowledge of feminine human nature.
— from Play-Making: A Manual of Craftsmanship by William Archer

He was accompanied by a friend, a man of imposing physique, whose deferential manner and constant attention showed that his position was one of dependence.
— from Round the Fire Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

The municipality of Toronto of today is, as you shall see, most progressive in the very fibers of its being, ranking with such cities as Des Moines and Cleveland and Boston as among the best governed upon the North American continent.
— from The Personality of American Cities by Edward Hungerford

Many were the perils I had faced fearlessly during my adventurous career as one of the Ansar of the Khalifa, and through the tedious journey in search of the Land of the No Return, but never in the darkest hours had I experienced such abject, indescribable fear as now froze my heart and held me inanimate and powerless.
— from The Eye of Istar: A Romance of the Land of No Return by William Le Queux

Smyth, Dame Ethel, iv. 333 Snowden, Philip, M.P., iv. 130 Social conditions, i. 208-231; ii. 197-235; iii. 235-286; iv. 13, 228-256; evils, i. 230; iii. 280; reform, ii. 52; changes, iv. 228; vulgarity and publicity of Society, iv. 229; Du Maurier as critic and satirist of the old régime , iv. 228, 229 Social Science Association, ii. 200, 251, 260 Socialism, iii. 75, 79, 82; iv. 107, 115, 128-30; in Germany, iii. 19; iv. 78 Society, High, invasion of new plutocracy, iii. 235 seq.
— from Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 4 (of 4).—1892-1914 by Charles L. (Charles Larcom) Graves