Some treaties of commerce, however, have been supposed advantageous, upon principles very different from these; and a commercial country has sometimes granted a monopoly of this kind, against itself, to certain goods of a foreign nation, because it expected, that in the whole commerce between them, it would annually sell more than it would buy, and that a balance in gold and silver would be annually returned to it.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Then there were new settlements and detached log-cabins and frame-houses, full of interest for strangers from an old country: cabins with simple ovens, outside, made of clay; and lodgings for the pigs nearly as good as many of the human quarters; broken windows, patched with worn-out hats, old clothes, old boards, fragments of blankets and paper; and home-made dressers standing in the open air without the door, whereon was ranged the household store, not hard to count, of earthen jars and pots.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

The Satyr, too, glared at me over the Hyena-swine's hunched shoulders.
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

The spirit of Alaric would have rejected such terms, the permission of a retreat, and the offer of a pension, with contempt and indignation; but he exercised a limited and precarious authority over the independent chieftains who had raised him, for their service, above the rank of his equals; they were still less disposed to follow an unsuccessful general, and many of them were tempted to consult their interest by a private negotiation with the minister of Honorius.
— 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

These gods also made overtures to White Fang, but he warned them off with a snarl, and the master did likewise with word of mouth.
— from White Fang by Jack London

He was an old non-commissioned officer of the old guard, a member of the Legion of Honor at Austerlitz, as much of a Bonapartist as the eagle.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Still our old question of the comparative advantage of justice and injustice has not been answered: Which is the more profitable, to be just and act justly and practise virtue, whether seen or unseen of gods and men, or to be unjust and act unjustly, if only unpunished and unreformed?
— from The Republic by Plato

Jordan, Sir Thomas Teddiman, and Sir Roger Cuttance, and so the necessity of the fleete for victuals, clothes, and money was discoursed, but by the discourse there of all but my Lord, that is to say, the counterfeit grave nonsense of Sir W. Pen and the poor mean discourse of the rest, methinks I saw how the government and management of the greatest business of the three nations is committed to very ordinary heads, saving my Lord, and in effect is only upon him, who is able to do what he pleases with them, they not having the meanest degree of reason to be able to oppose anything that he says, and so I fear it is ordered but like all the rest of the King’s publique affayres.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

some of this flint was as transparent as the common black glass and much of the same colour easily broken, and flaked off much like glass leaving a very sharp edge.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

In the first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his Prætorian præfect, addressed a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts.
— 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 studied Latin because I believed that I should read the Latin authors, and I suppose I got as much of the language as most school-boys of my age, but I never read any Latin author but Cornelius Nepos.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Literature Essays by William Dean Howells

However the feelings of the majority were inclined in his favour, and much better disposed towards him than Eumenes, although all the states of Greece, and most of the leading men, were under obligations to the latter for benefits and gifts; and although he so conducted himself in his sovereignty, that the cities which were under his dominion would not exchange their condition for that of any free state.
— from The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books by Livy

In the course of our conversation I learned that the ferrymen, who are more numerous on the lower than on the upper Rock, pay an annual license fee of five dollars each, in consideration of which they are guarantied a monopoly of the business at their stands, no other line being allowed within one mile of an existing ferry.
— from Historic Waterways—Six Hundred Miles of Canoeing Down the Rock, Fox, and Wisconsin Rivers by Reuben Gold Thwaites

Fair courteous knight, said Dame Lionesse, be not displeased nor over-hasty; for wit you well your great travail nor good love shall not be lost, for I consider your great travail and labour, your bounty and your goodness as me ought to do.
— from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir

This gives a measure of the quantity of heat produced by the discharge of jars.
— from Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach

He said he'd 'try to get a move on to him.'”
— from The Sky Pilot: A Tale of the Foothills by Ralph Connor

The importance of this branch of archæology cannot be too highly appreciated, embracing incidents, historic and social, from the earliest times, brought to our notice by invaluable specimens of glyptic art, many of them of the purest taste, beauty, and excellency; elucidating obscure points in the creeds and general usages of the past, types for artistic imitation, besides supplying links to fix particular times and events.
— from Finger-Ring Lore: Historical, Legendary, Anecdotal by Jones, William, F.S.A.

Not succeeding by persuasion, this scion of the aristocracy of the Old Dominion—this Virginian gentleman, and marshal of the United States for the District of Columbia—shut the girl up in the jail of the District, in hopes of thus breaking her to his will; and, as she proved obstinate, he finally sold her.
— from Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton, For Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail Including A Narrative Of The Voyage And Capture Of The Schooner Pearl by Daniel Drayton