I work in it in the day, and I sleep in it in the night; and what I get I lay down upon that stone,' says he, showing me a broad stone on the other side of the street, a good way from his house; 'and then,' says he, 'I halloo, and call to them till I make them hear; and they come and fetch it.'
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

If two plane polish'd Plates of Glass three or four Inches broad, and twenty or twenty five long, be laid one of them parallel to the Horizon, the other upon the first, so as at one of their ends to touch one another, and contain an Angle of about 10 or 15 Minutes, and the same be first moisten'd on their inward sides with a clean Cloth dipp'd into Oil of Oranges or Spirit of Turpentine, and a Drop or two of the Oil or Spirit be let fall upon the lower Glass at the other; so soon as the upper Glass is laid down upon the lower, so as to touch it at one end as above, and to touch the Drop at the other end, making with the lower Glass an Angle of about 10 or 15 [Pg 393] Minutes; the Drop will begin to move towards the Concourse of the Glasses, and will continue to move with an accelerated Motion, till it arrives at that Concourse of the Glasses.
— from Opticks Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light by Isaac Newton

The gods poor Cupid's case discussed,— And boys and girls in love decide, Decreeing that it's only just, Folly should Love in future guide.
— from The Fables of La Fontaine Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury and Illustrated by Gustave Doré by Jean de La Fontaine

But those who thoroughly weigh the things which they read, having understood and considered them, without any, or with no great and excessive degree of that obstinacy which belongs to a long-cherished error, will more readily judge that, in the five books already finished, we have done more than the necessity [Pg 229] of the question demanded, than that we have given it less discussion than it required.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Come 'l ramarro sotto la gran fersa dei di` canicular, cangiando sepe, folgore par se la via attraversa, si` pareva, venendo verso l'epe de li altri due, un serpentello acceso, livido e nero come gran di pepe; e quella parte onde prima e` preso nostro alimento, a l'un di lor trafisse; poi cadde giuso innanzi lui disteso.
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

In that one hour she had poured out more of the treasures of her soul than she could give in later days of wealth and happiness, when her whole self followed the gift.
— from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

He turned off his men for maids, because “men servants are generally impudent, lazy, debauched, or dishonest.”
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. (Tobias) Smollett

Four gentlemen, including Lord Downe, were trustees of the Grammar School at Drax, and made visits of inspection regularly every quarter.
— from Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange Events by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

"The very Dutch surpass them; and instead of trying to raise their standard, each year sees them grovelling in lower depths.
— from Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self by Marie Corelli

A disaster to our arms in the Strand was followed by a victory in Trafalgar Square, where Von Wilberg had established defences for the purpose of preventing the joining of the people of the East End with those of the West....” {531} CHAPTER IV MASSACRE OF GERMANS IN LONDON “ ‘Daily Mail’ Office , Oct. 12 , 6 p.m.
— from The Invasion of 1910, with a full account of the siege of London by William Le Queux

Some substances that are not usually looked upon as poisons may destroy life if given in large doses, such as common salt.
— from Special Report on Diseases of Cattle by Dr. (Benjamin Tilghman) Woodward