Large gifts they promise, and their elders send; In vain—he arms not, but permits his friend His arms, his steeds, his forces to employ: He marches, combats, almost conquers Troy: Then slain by Phoebus (Hector had the name)
— from The Iliad by Homer

There were people at the entrance: servants, and a rosy girl with a large plait of black hair, smiling as it seemed to Princess Mary in an unpleasantly affected way.
— from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf

They were at this time in the east part of the country; and men went between the kings who brought about a peace, and that Eystein should have a third part of the kingdom.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson

Upon the whole, then, it appears, that no testimony for any kind of miracle has ever amounted to a probability, much less to a proof; and that, even supposing it amounted to a proof, it would be opposed by another proof; derived from the very nature of the fact, which it would endeavour to establish.
— from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

But stay-she's good-looking, and shepherds there are with more mischief than simplicity in them; I would not have her 'come for wool and go back shorn;' love-making and lawless desires are just as common in the fields as in the cities, and in shepherds' shanties as in royal palaces; 'do away with the cause, you do away with the sin;' 'if eyes don't see hearts don't break' and 'better a clear escape than good men's prayers.'" "A truce to thy proverbs, Sancho," exclaimed Don Quixote; "any one of those thou hast uttered would suffice to explain thy meaning; many a time have I recommended thee not to be so lavish with proverbs and to exercise some moderation in delivering them; but it seems to me it is only 'preaching in the desert;' 'my mother beats me and I go on with my tricks."
— from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

these lines are joined to what precedes, as they evidently should be; in all the more recent eds.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

When some time had passed, and the eldest son for month after month did not come back home, the second set out, wishing to find the Golden Bird.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Wilhelm Grimm

The good soul, which has intercourse with the divine nature, passes into a holier and better place; and the evil soul, as she grows worse, changes her place for the worse.
— from Laws by Plato

He who believes that each equine species was independently created, will, I presume, assert that each species has been created with a tendency to vary, both under nature and under domestication, in this particular manner, so as often to become striped like the other species of the genus; and that each has been created with a strong tendency, when crossed with species inhabiting distant quarters of the world, to produce hybrids resembling in their stripes, not their own parents, but other species of the genus.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition by Charles Darwin

Cf. also Pagingas among the early settlers.
— from Surnames as a Science by Robert Ferguson

As we shall hereafter see, the reproductive processes and the earlier stages of existence of these creatures possess much interest, and have afforded strong grounds for regarding them, in spite of their lowly organization, as very close allies of the highest animals or Vertebrata .
— from The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879 by Various

The whole history of France is summed up in the persistent effort of the King to establish an absolute monarchy, and three centuries were passed in a struggle between nobles, parliaments and the eventually supreme ruler.
— from Early French Prisons Le Grand and Le Petit Châtelets; Vincennes; The Bastile; Loches; The Galleys; Revolutionary Prisons by Arthur Griffiths

Now you must pay, and the entertainment shall be mine!”
— from Clue of the Silken Ladder by Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt

After awhile arose the Puritan, and the Episcopalian said, "We don't want anything of him—he is a bad man;" and they finally drove some of them away and they settled in New England, and there were among them Quakers, than whom there never were better people on the earth—industrious, frugal, gentle, kind and loving—and yet these Puritans began hanging them.
— from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12) Dresden Edition—Miscellany by Robert Green Ingersoll

[171] After the Missouri, which in the Far West is what the Mississippi is in the North, the finest rivers are the Kanzas, the Platte, and the Eau Sucree.
— from Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 2; and De Smet's Letters and Sketches, 1841-1842 by Pierre-Jean de Smet

Unlike her proud and talkative elder sisters, Oweenee was shy and modest, and spoke but little.
— from American Indian Fairy Tales by W. T. (William Trowbridge) Larned

He did not envy the simplicity of a man who would be willing to sit in the parquet all the evening, staring at the empty scene, studying the woodland or mountain decorations, and listening to the voice of the orchestra.
— from In Paradise: A Novel. Vol. II by Paul Heyse