Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace; Now powers from home and discontents at home Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits, As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast, The imminent decay of wrested pomp.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

It is true there was, as I observed at first, and is well known to many yet living, a very cold winter and a long frost which continued three months; and this, the doctors say, might check the infection; but then the learned must allow me to say that if, according to their notion, the disease was (as I may say) only frozen up, it would like a frozen river have returned to its usual force and current when it thawed—whereas the principal recess of this infection, which was from February to April, was after the frost was broken and the weather mild and warm.
— from A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London by Daniel Defoe

During his government of twenty-five years, the penalty of death was abolished in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety.
— 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

Here Pilgrims roam, that stray'd so farr to seek In Golgotha him dead, who lives in Heav'n; And they who to be sure of Paradise Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd; 480 They pass the Planets seven, and pass the fixt, And that Crystalline Sphear whose ballance weighs The Trepidation talkt, and that first mov'd; And now Saint Peter at Heav'ns Wicket seems To wait them with his Keys, and now at foot Of Heav'ns ascent they lift thir Feet, when loe A violent cross wind from either Coast Blows them transverse ten thousand Leagues awry Into the devious Air; then might ye see Cowles, Hoods and Habits with thir wearers tost 490 And flutterd into Raggs, then Reliques, Beads, Indulgences, Dispenses, Pardons, Bulls, The sport of Winds: all these upwhirld aloft Fly o're the backside of the World farr off Into a Limbo large and broad, since calld The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown Long after, now unpeopl'd, and untrod; All this dark Globe the Fiend found as he pass'd, And long he wanderd, till at last a gleame Of dawning light turnd thither-ward in haste 500 His travell'd steps; farr distant hee descries Ascending by degrees magnificent Up to the wall of Heaven a Structure high, At top whereof, but farr more rich appeerd The work as of a Kingly Palace Gate With Frontispice of Diamond and Gold Imbellisht, thick with sparkling orient Gemmes The Portal shon, inimitable on Earth By Model, or by shading Pencil drawn.
— from The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton

He revolved through the family system like a vagrant comet in its orbit, sometimes visiting one branch, and sometimes another quite remote, as is often the case with gentlemen of extensive connections and small fortunes in England.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving

he said, in low, hollow tones, that sounded like a voice charged with some prophetic mission: “the face of the Manitou is behind a cloud!
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper

While Gammer chases the cat the family needle is lost, a veritable calamity in those days.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

E io a lui: <<Ancor vo' che mi 'nsegni, e che di piu` parlar mi facci dono.
— from Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

That night we slept on piles of wheat in a mill at Soquel, near Santa Cruz, and, our supplies being short, I advised that we should make an early start next morning, so as to reach the ranch of Don Juan Antonio Vallejo, a particular friend, who had a large and valuable cattle-ranch on the Pajaro River, about twenty miles on our way to Monterey.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

It is used as a gargle for hoarseness, decreasing the congestion of the larynx and vocal cords. Gargle.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. (Trinidad Hermenegildo) Pardo de Tavera

The sky was of a heavenly blue—liquid turquoise, swept with feathery dashes of pink, that set off the glistening landscape like a velvet curtain spread for the purpose.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 22, October, 1875, to March, 1876 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various

In ten hours my drunken fit had passed away like a vaporous cloud; and here, governor, is your Zouave, in a fit state, ready to dance upon a rope without a balance-pole.”
— from Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War. With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions by Alexis Soyer

LLANGOLLEN AND VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY =How to get there.=—Train from Paddington.
— from What to See in England A Guide to Places of Historic Interest, Natural Beauty or Literary Association by Gordon Home

His brows were shaggy, and his grey beard reached well down over his breast; a long and voluminous cloak, much discoloured by the weather, was bound round his waist by a rope, and in his hand he carried a great staff.
— from Vandrad the Viking; Or, The Feud and the Spell by J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston

The red-haired Masha came in with letters and visiting cards on a tray.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Steeped in the full moon, it sent out its cloying perfume like a visible cloud; her white nightgown glistened ghostlike through the leaves.
— from While Caroline Was Growing by Josephine Daskam Bacon

She was like a very clear, delicate white wine.
— from The Pastor's Wife by Elizabeth Von Arnim

In their hands were united the rents of the soil of almost all Italy and of the best portions of the provincial territory, the proceeds at usury of the capital monopolized by them, the commercial gain from the whole empire, and lastly, a very considerable part of the Roman state-revenue in the form of profits accruing from the lease of that revenue.
— from The History of Rome, Book IV The Revolution by Theodor Mommsen

It is true there was, as I observed at first, and is well known to many yet living, a very cold winter and a long frost, which continued three months; and this, the doctors say, might check the infection.
— from History of the Plague in London by Daniel Defoe