A "Brilliant Opera Night" A "brilliant opera night," which one often hears spoken of (meaning merely that all the boxes are occupied, and that the ladies are more elaborately dressed than usual) is generally a night when a leader of fashion such as Mrs. Worldly, Mrs. Gilding, or Mrs. Toplofty, is giving a ball; and most of the holders of the parterre boxes are in ball dresses, with an unusual display of jewels.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

To all these we add the fleet which preserved the communication between Gaul and Britain, and a great number of vessels constantly maintained on the Rhine and Danube, to harass the country, or to intercept the passage of the barbarians.
— 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

This is the case in the normal intrigues, going on every night in the village between unmarried girls and boys, and also in more ceremonial cases of indulgence, like the katuyausi custom, or the mortuary consolations, mentioned in Chapter II, Division II .
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

Now these men afford us an evident example and demonstration how some children are not of the like dispositions with their parents; but sometimes perhaps good and moderate, though born of wicked parents; and sometimes showing themselves to be wicked, though born of good parents: for these men turning aside from their father's good courses, and taking a course that was contrary to them, perverted justice for the 'filthy lucre of gifts and bribes, and made their determinations not according to truth, but according to bribery, and turned aside to luxury, and a costly way of living; so that as, in the first place, they practiced what was contrary to the will of God, so did they, in the second place, what was contrary to the will of the prophet their father, who had taken a great deal of care, and made a very careful provision that the multitude should be righteous.
— from Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus

“He's a radiant boy,” thought Thornton Hancock, who had seen the splendor of two continents and talked with Parnell and Gladstone and Bismarck—and afterward he added to Monsignor: “But his education ought not to be intrusted to a school or college.”
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

She in whose favor it is determined exults greatly, and being attended by her relations, is laid on the funeral pile with her husband; the others, who are postponed, walk away very much dejected.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

The grave is here; The world is gall And bitterness all.
— from Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

And Raoul, remembering the Persian's observation—"I know these pistols can be relied upon"—was more and more astonished, wondering why any one should be so gratified at being able to rely upon a pistol which he did not intend to use!
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

GIRL AND BOY, a saveloy,—a penny sausage.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

“No, she wasn’t,” said Ridiklis shaking her head, “I had just given her hot water and cold, and gruel, and broth, and castor oil, and ipecacuanha and put ice almost all over her.
— from Racketty-Packetty House, as Told by Queen Crosspatch by Frances Hodgson Burnett

We wasn't on the map—even me, that ain't got any brains at all, knowed that.
— from The Man Next Door by Emerson Hough

, there were sixteen legacies and donations, all applied to the relief of debtors, and “Nell” Gwynne also bequeathed a sum to be expended in loaves for Common Side debtors.
— from Non-Criminal Prisons English Debtor's Prisons and Prisons of War; French War Prisons; American War Prisons with References to Those of Other Lands by Arthur Griffiths

Arter that, I got leave to say good-by to some o' the boys; an' then the warden he sent fur me to come into his office, an' there 173 was two of the inspectors, an' the chaplain, an' the State agent, an' the chap in the long coat an' the goggles, as big as life.
— from My Fire Opal, and Other Tales by Sarah Warner Brooks

He staid and talked a long time with Mrs. Hardyng while he was waiting for the schoolmistress, who had gone away; but after a time, when she didn't come back, he was so impatient he went off trying to find her."
— from Clemence The Schoolmistress of Waveland by Retta Babcock

While all were on board the Centurion, they were greatly alarmed by a sudden flame bursting out in the Gloucester, followed by a cloud of smoke; but were soon relieved of their apprehensions, by receiving information that the blast had been occasioned by a spark of fire from the forge lighting on some gun-powder, and other combustibles, which an officer was preparing for use, in case of falling in with the Spanish squadron, and which had exploded without any damage to the ship.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Robert Kerr

"By all means," I said, wondering how long it would take to get a book about birds down from London.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, May 7, 1919. by Various

Lastly, he should himself be thoroughly acquainted with the grammar, and be able to find out what should be learnt "by rote, what by heart, and what passages need not at all be learnt."
— from The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England during Tudor and Stuart Times With an Introductory Chapter on the Preceding Period by K. Rebillon (Kathleen Rebillon) Lambley

Hiring a gun of the local gunsmith and buying a hundred cartridges, one then secured a trap with a driver, who probably brought his own gun and shot also (probably better than oneself), but who certainly knew the ground.
— from The Twentieth Century American Being a Comparative Study of the Peoples of the Two Great Anglo-Saxon Nations by Harry Perry Robinson

We have seen great numbers of elk, deer, goats, and buffaloes, and the usual attendants of these last,—the wolves, which follow their movements, and feed upon those who die by accident, or are too feeble to keep pace with the herd.
— from Oregon and Eldorado; or, Romance of the Rivers by Thomas Bulfinch