The silk-weavers in London had scarce been incorporated a year, when they enacted a bye-law, restraining any master from having more than two apprentices at a time.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

"What a joke it would be," he said, "but we have other things to do, my dear."
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey

Heart-smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so often came between herself and her sole treasure, whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world, Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

He stood before me, motionless, with a mocking smile in his eyes; but for all that, for a moment I had an inkling of a fiery, tortured spirit, aiming at something greater than could be conceived by anything that was bound up with the flesh.
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

I mean that children hear stories before they learn gymnastics, and that the stories are either untrue, or have at most one or two grains of truth in a bushel of falsehood.
— from The Republic by Plato

Wickham indeed had gone to her, on their first arrival in London, and had she been able to receive them into her house, they would have taken up their abode with her.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

When an aqueous solution of chlorine was poured over a slip of paper prepared with gum guaiacum dissolved in soda, a colour varying from a deep somewhat greenish hue to a fine celestial blue was given to it; and, when the solar spectrum was thrown on the paper while moist, the colour was discharged from all the space under the less refrangible luminous rays, at the same time that the more distant thermic rays beyond the spectrum evaporated the moisture from the space on which they fell; so that the heat spots became apparent.
— from On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences by Mary Somerville

These great and glorious changes, the reality of which it was at first difficult to believe, having opened to the subjects and commerce of Britain, countries from which they had been for so many successive years proscribed, it was not long before numbers of British repaired to the continent to indulge that love of roving for which they had been always distinguished (and which a long war had suppressed but not eradicated) and to claim from all true patriots, in the countries they visited, that friendly reception to which the long perseverance and vast sacrifices of England, during a struggle unexampled in history, had so justly entitled the lowest of her subjects.
— from A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium, during the summer and autumn of 1814 by Richard Boyle Bernard

Many tons of liquefied air have since been systematically fractionated, but no other gas than those above named has been obtained.
— from History of Chemistry, Volume 2 (of 2) From 1850 to 1910 by T. E. (Thomas Edward) Thorpe

"You must get on as fast as you can this winter, Bill," he said; "because when the summer evenings come we shall want to go for long walks."
— from Sturdy and Strong; Or, How George Andrews Made His Way by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

"Oh, we're awfully proud of him," said Bingley, leaning heavily on the table, "of course, and trot him out behind his back for praises and all that, but when it comes to giving up that sweet name—that's another thing," he added regretfully.
— from Five Little Peppers Grown Up by Margaret Sidney

At last the famous Island of Crete was reached, and there Daedalus landed and made himself known; and the King of Crete, who had already heard of his wondrous skill, welcomed him to his kingdom, and gave him a home in his palace, and promised that he should be rewarded with great riches and honor if he would but stay and practice his craft there as he had done in Athens.
— from Old Greek Stories by James Baldwin

He half drew his sword, but, thinking better of it, he took the Maroon to the Castle and locked him up in a slave's hut, having first bound him and put him in the charge of one he could trust.
— from No Defense, Volume 3. by Gilbert Parker

Therefore, go; These griefs and losses have so bated me That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
— from The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

But, unfortunately for him, in this new sphere he was enabled by the liberal contributions of his admirers to indulge also without restraint that more fatal passion for drink which had proved his bane through life, leading him step by step, as usual with such reckless characters, to an untimely and degraded grave.
— from The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 33, February 13, 1841 by Various