Nor is this of little consequence, that it serves to demonstrate that the whole range of the variety of tangible bodies with which we are acquainted (we mean tolerably close, and not spongy, hollow bodies, which are for a considerable part filled with air), does not exceed the ratio of one to twenty-one.
— from Novum Organum; Or, True Suggestions for the Interpretation of Nature by Francis Bacon

F. G. Calcott gains an equal number of marks, but having taken a Prize last Quarter is not eligible to receive one on this occasion.
— from Little Folks (October 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various

Ought I not either to renounce Olivia, or to render myself in every respect her equal; and to disdain the degrading insolence with which any pretensions of mine would otherwise be received.
— from The Adventures of Hugh Trevor by Thomas Holcroft

Honorary members were to be admitted, but without the hereditary advantages of the society, and provided their number would never exceed the ratio of one to four of the officers or their descendants.
— from A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings On Moral, Historical, Political, and Literary Subjects by Noah Webster

Now that he was gone, and their knowledge of each other perhaps all over, she tried to coolly reason it all out for herself, but found so much that contained no reason—that had existed only through impulses—impulses not easy to realize once outside the circle of their attending circumstances.
— from Told in the Hills: A Novel by Marah Ellis Ryan

Upon which, turning towards the two princes, the Prince de Joinville and the Landgrave of Hesse, and the colonels and other officers who were with him, he said: ‘Gentlemen, I could not effect this reconciliation or offer these assurances of friendship to M. de Bassompierre in a better place, after a better action, or before more noble witnesses.
— from A Gallant of Lorraine; vol. 1 of 2 François, Seigneur de Bassompierre, Marquis d'Haronel, Maréchal de France, 1579-1646 by H. Noel (Hugh Noel) Williams

Vary true, my lord, vary true—and it is monstrous that a mon of your lordship's condition is not entitled to run one of these mechanics through the body, when he is impertinent about his money; but our laws shamefully, on these occasions, make no distinction of persons amongst us.
— from The Man of the World (1792) by Charles Macklin

"I knew him, Horatio;" and a very kindly honest man he was, who had come to England authorised to make enquiry into our general agricultural condition, and who discharged his mission by publishing some reports extremely creditable to his good sense and ability, expressed in a plain nervous English that reminded one of the rural writings of Cobbett.
— from The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by John Forster