I am well aware that this doctrine of natural selection, exemplified in the above imaginary instances, is open to the same objections which were first urged against Sir Charles Lyell's noble views on "the modern changes of the earth, as illustrative of geology;" but we now seldom hear the agencies which we see still at work, spoken of as trifling and insignificant, when used in explaining the excavation of the deepest valleys or the formation of long lines of inland cliffs.
— 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

XXII 185 Ye dreary instruments of dolefull sight, That doe this deadly spectacle behold, Why do ye lenger feed on loathed light, Or liking find to gaze on earthly mould
— from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Edmund Spenser

Had the functions of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland been of that drowsy, tiresome, uninteresting nature, that it was only deemed fair by the legislature to afford him some amusing pastime to distract his “ ennui ” and dispel his melancholy, there might seem to have been then some reason for this extraordinary enactment.
— from Nuts and Nutcrackers by Charles James Lever

Débâcler (thieves’ and popular), to open ; to force open ; —— la lourde , open the door .
— from Argot and Slang A New French and English Dictionary of the Cant Words, Quaint Expressions, Slang Terms and Flash Phrases Used in the High and Low Life of Old and New Paris by Albert Barrère

For when he had opened the prison (it was the same cell wherein my child had first been shut up), we found old Lizzie lying on the ground on a truss of straw, with a broom for a pillow (as though she were about to fly to hell upon it, as she no longer could fly to Blockula), so that I shuddered when I caught sight of her.
— from Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania — Volume 2 by Wilhelm Meinhold

That which would have pleased a vain woman, and gratified an ambitious one, fell only like lead on the young Georgina's heart.
— from The Exclusives (vol. 2 of 3) by Bury, Charlotte Campbell, Lady

If the conditions of soil and climate which the grape requires can be found on level land or moderate slopes, such situations are much better than steep declivities, since on these the cost of all vineyard operations is greater and heavy rains erode the soil.
— from Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick

As a general thing they have as little fear of losing life or limb as any other people.
— from Lost Lenore: The Adventures of a Rolling Stone by Mayne Reid

The actor's world is full of lavender ladies of the Bovary type: the wonder of it is that so many of them 'get away with it' as you have so elegantly expressed it.
— from My Actor-Husband: A true story of American stage life by Anonymous

That the said Warren Hastings has delivered his opinion, with many arguments to support the same, in favor of long leases of the lands, in preference to annual settlements: that he has particularly declared, "that the farmer who holds his farm for one year only, having no interest in the next, takes what he can with the hand of rigor, which, even in the execution of legal claims, is often equivalent to violence; he is under the necessity of being rigid, and even cruel ,—for what is left in arrear after the expiration of his power is at best a doubtful debt, if ever recoverable; he will be tempted to exceed the bounds of right, and to augment his income by irregular exactions, and by racking the tenants, for which pretences will not be wanting, where the farms pass annually from one hand to another; that the discouragements which the tenants feel from being transferred every year to new landlords are a great objection to such short leases; that they contribute to injure the cultivation and dispeople the lands; that, on the contrary, from long farms the farmer acquires a permanent interest in his lands; he will, for his own sake, lay out money in assisting his tenants in improving lands already cultivated, and in clearing and cultivating waste lands."
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 09 (of 12) by Edmund Burke