The rescripts of the emperor, his grants and decrees, his edicts and pragmatic sanctions, were subscribed in purple ink, 47 and transmitted to the provinces as general or special laws, which the magistrates were bound to execute, and the people to obey.
— 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

Mr. Apthorp told of his own similar struggle, and how he had entered a public school and sat for months with ten-year-old-boys, reciting their lessons and catching their phrases.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

Mr. Bhaer soon joined her, looking rather out of his element, and presently several of the philosophers, each mounted on his hobby, came ambling up to hold an intellectual tournament in the recess.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The constituencies to which most of the highly educated and public spirited persons in the country belong, those of the large towns, are now, in great part, either unrepresented or misrepresented.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

Her plea touched me, for she had exercised a profound spiritual influence over my early life, and had lovingly tried to fill the void left in the family circle by Mother's death.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

We had experienced a pretty smart shock before coming below, which, but that we were the most sanguine people living, might have prepared us for the worst.
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

She also employed what I term the Repetend, in the use of which Poe has excelled all poets since Coleridge thus revived it: "O happy living things!
— from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

33-37: Hic erat Arganthi Pege sub vertice montis Grata domus Nymphis umida Thyniasin, Quam supra nullae pendebant debita curae Roscida desertis poma sub arboribus, Et circum irriguo surgebant lilia prato Candida purpureis mixta papaveribus.
— from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Edmund Luce

Napoleon, no longer Emperor of the French, was confined to the island of Elba, in which he exercised a petty sovereignty; having been driven from his country by the treachery of his Counsellors and Marshals, backed up by the victorious forces of the Allies.
— from For Love of a Bedouin Maid by Voleur

Sir Thomas said little, but thought much—he never afterwards, I have heard, exhibited a poetic subject."
— from Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art, (Vol. 2 of 3) by Shearjashub Spooner

But Colbert, approaching him, offered to his eyes a physiognomy so different from that which he had been accustomed to see him wear; he appeared so good, so mild, so easy; his eyes took the expression of an intelligence so noble, that D’Artagnan, a connoisseur in physiognomies, was moved, and almost changed in his convictions.
— from The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

Among the considerations which have induced me to believe that this would have been a happy state, is, that we should have enjoyed a perfect state of safety.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 3 (of 16) by United States. Congress

[27] Ye also, who have experienced, and perhaps still enjoy, the watchful care and affectionate caresses of devoted parents, forget not that there are those, who have never rejoiced in the sound of a father's voice, or a mother's gentle embraces.
— from A Sermon Preached on the Anniversary of the Boston Female Asylum for Destitute Orphans, September 25, 1835 by Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright

Every Saturday night I brought home my fifteen dollars, and Ruth took out three for the rent, five for household expenses, and put seven in the ginger jar.
— from One Way Out: A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America by William Carleton

II One hand enclosed a paper scroll, Held as a strangled asp.
— from Poems — Volume 2 by George Meredith

[Warburton had explained and praised Shakespeare's "metaphor"]
— from Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies by Samuel Johnson

Master Dismal had experienced a perfect state of contemplative contentment during the recent visitation; he might now sit himself down and retire for a space, he thought; his researches had been most incessant, and his attendance upon his neighbours most praiseworthy; he could almost have written a treatise upon all he had beheld and studied; he had seen out no less than three sapient doctors during the progress of the plague, and could indeed, from his gathered experience, have himself practised the healing art as well as the remaining one.
— from William Shakespeare as He Lived: An Historical Tale by Henry Curling