But with regard to most of the heraldic design of the present day as a whole it is very evident that we are simply picking and choosing tit-bits from the work of bygone craftsmen, and copying, more or less slavishly, examples of other periods.
— from A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies

Whatever signs, shows, or gestures we shall make, or whatever our behaviour, carriage, or demeanour shall happen to be in their view and presence, they will interpret the whole in reference to the act of androgynation and the culbutizing exercise, by which means we shall be abusively disappointed of our designs, in regard that she will take all our signs for nothing else but tokens and representations of our desire to entice her unto the lists of a Cyprian combat or catsenconny skirmish.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais

Several large bodies of barbarians, covering their retreat with a movable fortification of wagons, retired, or rather escaped, from the field of slaughter.
— 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

The aneurism of the arch of the aorta may cause suffocation in two ways--viz., either by pressing directly on the tracheal tube, or by compressing and irritating the vagus nerve, whose recurrent branch will convey the stimulus to the laryngeal muscles, and cause spasmodic closure of the glottis.
— from Surgical Anatomy by Joseph Maclise

they are of brown colour with yellowish and yellowishbrown spots.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Edward has an old black coat, which will save his having a second new one; but I find that black pantaloons are considered by them as necessary, and of course one would not have them made uncomfortable by the want of what is usual on such occasions.
— from The Letters of Jane Austen Selected from the compilation of her great nephew, Edward, Lord Bradbourne by Jane Austen

when the weather is a litte warm this robe is thrown aside and the leather truss or breech-clout constitutes the whole of their apparel.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The excitement with which we awaited the arrival of our guest can only be compared with the strained suspense with which spiritualists wait from minute to minute the appearance of a ghost.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

In the principal street of the city, it had received more attention; for hogs, great and small, rooted about in it and wallowed in it, turning the street into a liquid quagmire which could only be crossed on pieces of plank thrown here and there.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

She saw her daughter in a beatified state about to enter its golden portals, and would have clung to her robes in the hope of being carried in with her, but she was driven away by an angel with a flaming sword, who cried out, "Thou hast abjured heaven, and heaven rejects thee.
— from The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest by William Harrison Ainsworth

By A. D. Lindsay, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford. 32.
— from Schopenhauer by Margrieta Beer

“Then, with a light finish, get your oar blade clear of the water cleanly, feather light, low and quick—into the water again all together with a ‘chug’—another pull and—there you are—you’re rowing!”
— from The Eight-Oared Victors: A Story of College Water Sports by Lester Chadwick

Referring to the statutory [10] provisions for preventing overwork by children in factories, workshops and mines, the report declared: "But the labour of children for wages outside these cases is totally unregulated, although many of them work longer than the factory hours allowed for children of the same age, and are at the same time undergoing compulsory educational training, which makes a considerable demand on their energies.
— from Child Labor in City Streets by Edward Nicholas Clopper

At dawn the African dove commences with his long-drawn note like a boy blowing over the top of a bottle, one bird calling to another from the palms and mango trees.
— from Sketches of the East Africa Campaign by Robert Valentine Dolbey

He again adverted to his former position, that the House may, if it sees proper, introduce the Secretary of State to a privilege of being consulted, or any other person who may be thought suitable.
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 1 (of 16) by United States. Congress

A pleasant smell of bread came from it, and did what it could to entertain him in the all but deserted street.
— from Donal Grant by George MacDonald

He has always been considered one of our best citizens.
— from Then and Now; or, Thirty-Six Years in the Rockies Personal Reminiscences of Some of the First Pioneers of the State of Montana by Robert Vaughn

Erasmus protested with such an air of truth as would have convinced any person capable of being convinced, that, in giving that information, he had been actuated solely by a desire to save Miss Panton from a ruinous match, by honest regard for her and all her family.
— from Tales and Novels — Volume 07 Patronage [part 1] by Maria Edgeworth

His text was, 'For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord,' &c.
— from Biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou by Maturin Murray Ballou