His first appointment was a piece of favouritism, but it was due to his merits alone that he obtained the secretaryship.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

On his introduction into the Forum, at the age of manhood, he gave a largess to the people and a donative to the soldiers: for the pretorian cohorts, he appointed a solemn procession under arms, and marched at the head of them with a shield in his hand; after which he went to return thanks to his father in the senate.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Coming home I brought Mr. Pickering as far as the Temple, who tells me the story is very true of a child being dropped at the ball at Court; and that the King had it in his closett a week after, and did dissect it; and making great sport of it, said that in his opinion it must have been a month and three hours old; and that, whatever others think, he hath the greatest loss (it being a boy, as he says), that hath lost a subject by the business.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

She first went to live in a garrison-town t'other side o' Wessex, and since then she's been picking up a living at seampstering in Melchester for several months, at the house of a very respectable widow-woman who takes in work of that sort.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

“The Master and the House of Pain will come again.
— from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

The leaves, but especially the root, taken fresh in Summer-time, beaten or made into a poultice or salve with old hog’s grease, and applied to the places pained with the sciatica, to continue thereon four hours if it be on a man, and two hours on a woman; the place afterwards bathed with wine and oil mixed together, and then wrapped with wool or skins, after they have sweat a little, will assuredly cure not only the same disease in hips, knuckle-bone, or other of the joints, as gout in the hands or feet, but all other old griefs of the head, (as inveterate rheums,) and other parts of the body that are hard to be cured.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

When a woman is pregnant, the ceremony of pulikuti (drinking of tamarind juice) is performed for her during [ 349 ] the ninth month at the hut of her husband.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

The hour struck from a distant tower; he asked the boy:— “What time is it?” “Seven o’clock, sir; we shall reach Arras at eight; we have but three leagues still to go.” At that moment, he for the first time indulged in this reflection, thinking it odd the while that it had not occurred to him sooner: that all this trouble which he was taking was, perhaps, useless; that he did not know so much as the hour of the trial; that he should, at least, have informed himself of that; that he was foolish to go thus straight ahead without knowing whether he would be of any service or not; then he sketched out some calculations in his mind: that, ordinarily, the sittings of the Court of Assizes began at nine o’clock in the morning; that it could not be a long affair; that the theft of the apples would be very brief; that there would then remain only a question of identity, four or five depositions, and very little for the lawyers to say; that he should arrive after all was over.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Thou must also take heed of another kind of wandering, for they are idle in their actions, who toil and labour in this life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions, and desires.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

And He put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and the helmet of salvation upon His [p. A77R] head; and put on garments of vengeance as armour, and clothed Himself in zeal as in a cloak.
— from The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Volume 15 (of 32) The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Volume I by Alfred Tucker

If not, just think on the little garrison at Lucknow, hemmed in by rebel thousands, with provisions every day diminishing, with the massacre of Cawnpore before their eyes, and with the horrid murderer at the head of the blockading force thirsting for their blood, and eager, if ever he can gain the power, to re-enact the same barbarities on themselves.
— from England's Stewardship The Substance of a Sermon Preached on the Fast-Day, in Trinity Church, Tunbridge Wells by Edward Hoare

He was still a moment, and then he opened his eyes again slowly.
— from For Love of Country: A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution by Cyrus Townsend Brady

But Mr. Anderson, the head operator in the tower-house, doesn't seem to be thinking of these things.
— from Harper's Round Table, December 24, 1895 by Various

Early in the middle ages the history of the passion according to the four evangelists was sung on the four days of Holy Week.
— from How Music Developed A Critical and Explanatory Account of the Growth of Modern Music by W. J. (William James) Henderson

How many eyes were fixed, with the fond recollection of their village homes amid clustering oaks in distant England, upon this noble tree—which, in a few moments, amid the howl of war, were closed for ever in the sleep of the dead!
— from The South-West, by a Yankee. In Two Volumes. Volume 1 by J. H. (Joseph Holt) Ingraham

Well, we made a fire and fixed supper and then these men put a rope on Monroe and took him off a little piece and wrapped the rope around a tree and never even tied the rope fast.
— from Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XVI, Texas Narratives, Part 3 by United States. Work Projects Administration

“Who is to say if he himself be not the man Morris, and the husband of our fair friend?
— from One Of Them by Charles James Lever

He is so much at the head of things here, that he has never been accustomed to be closely examined; and so he goes on quite smoothly.'
— from Life of Johnson, Volume 5 Tour to the Hebrides (1773) and Journey into North Wales (1774) by James Boswell