By the 5th of Elizabeth, commonly called the Statute of Apprenticeship, it was enacted, that no person should, for the future, exercise any trade, craft, or mystery, at that time exercised in England, unless he had previously served to it an apprenticeship of seven years at least; and what before had been the bye-law of many particular corporations, became in England the general and public law of all trades carried on in market towns.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

But, although there was no evil and little real selfishness in Mrs. Nickleby’s heart, she had a weak head and a vain one; and there was something so flattering in being sought (and vainly sought) in marriage at this time of day, that she could not dismiss the passion of the unknown gentleman quite so summarily or lightly as Nicholas appeared to deem becoming.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

The child’s grandfather, or the eldest male member of the family, sits on a mat, and takes the child in his lap.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston

They make also the Typhoon and Comet machines, and a line of globular roasters.
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

Wherefore there was a necessity that they should since add a fortuitous and sideways motion, and that they should moreover accoutre their atoms with hooked tails, by which they might unite and cling to one another.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

Suddenly, however, at this crisis, an opening was made, almost by accident, for reconciliation with my friends; I quitted London in haste for a remote part of England; after some time I proceeded to the university, and it was not until many months had passed away that I had it in my power again to revisit the ground which had become so interesting to me, and to this day remains so, as the chief scene of my youthful sufferings.
— from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey

The table on which the tin soldiers stood, was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

It may be put down as morally ascertained that towards all these weaknesses of humanity, and others like unto them, he held an attitude which was less that of the unassailable philosopher than that of the sympathiser, indulgent and excusing.
— from Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1 by Henry Fielding

That my Lord Digby did send to Lisbon a couple of priests, to search out what they could against the Chancellor concerning the match, as to the point of his knowing before-hand that the Queene was not capable of bearing children; and that something was given her to make her so.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

In each and every case the great authorities appear to be of one mind as to the disastrous effects upon the children born to these mothers.
— from Women Wage-Earners: Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future by Helen Campbell

And although our iourney hath bene so miserable, dangerous, and chargeable with losses, charges and expenses, as my penne is not able to expresse the same: yet shall wee bee able to satisfie the woorshipfull Companies mindes, as touching the discouerie of The Caspian Sea, with the trade of merchandise to bee had in such landes and countreyes as bee thereabout adiacent, and, haue brought of the wares and commodities of those Countries able to answere the principall with profite: wishing that there were vtterance for as great a quantitie of kersies and other wares as there is profile to bee had in the sales of a small quantitie, (all such euill fortunes beeing escaped as to vs haue chaunced this present voyage,) for then
— from The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 03 by Richard Hakluyt

He flung himself at the biggest sea-catch he could find, caught him by the throat, choked him and bumped him and banged him till he grunted for mercy, and then threw him aside and attacked the next.
— from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

She was favourable enough to them, but she thought it could not be to her advantage to offend such a multitude as then took upon them the defence of the Evangel and the name of Protestants.
— from The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland With Which Are Included Knox's Confession and The Book of Discipline by John Knox

So they went but a little way on the green road ere they came to Sir Hugh bound hard and fast to a tree-bole, and he naked in his shirt, and hard by lay the bodies of two stout carles with their throats cut; for these honest men and the two felons who had betrayed them were all the following wherewith the Green Knight had entered Evilshaw.
— from The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris

Besides these Græco-Roman works, the fruit of pillage, which adorned the public places of Carthage, there were those which were the work of the Greek artists whom Carthage was pleased to summon to her bosom; there were also those of Carthaginian craftsmen educated at the school of the Greeks: these last alone interest us here, and the scanty specimens which exist of them confirm us in the opinion that the Carthaginians were not more artistic than the Phœnicians.
— from Manual of Oriental Antiquities by Ernest Babelon

"Go and find my car, Mr Elton's car," he said to the man, "and tell the driver he won't be wanted to-night.
— from The New Gulliver, and Other Stories by Barry Pain

1361—Men and beasts perished in diuers places with thunder and lightning, and fiends were seene speake unto men as they trauelled.
— from The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious by Frank H. Stauffer