Touching the antiquity of this custom, I find, that in the year 1398, King Richard having procured from Rome confirmation of such statutes and ordinances as were made in the parliament, begun at Westminster and ended at Shrewsbury, he caused the same confirmation to be read and pronounced at Paules cross, and at St. Mary Spittle, in the sermons before all the people.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

He was the father of Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish name has been melted into the appellation of the caliph Othman; and if we describe that pastoral chief as a shepherd and a robber, we must separate from those characters all idea of ignominy and baseness.
— 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

I promised counsel and advice, such as I would give to my own daughter; I shall speak to her as I would do to Fanny, if she had gone gallivanting with a young man in the dusk.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

There was a murmur of wonder, then all looked up and saw a strange and pretty sight, for the branches were heavy with fruits of many kinds and colors—oranges, grapes, bananas, peaches, cherries, apricots, and so on.
— from The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories by Mark Twain

Pegge, however, states that it is a burlesque rendering of the words of the unreformed church service at the delivery of the host, HOC EST CORPUS , which the early Protestants considered as a species of conjuring, and ridiculed accordingly.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

The devotions consisted only of two hymns from the Plymouth Collection and a short prayer, and seldom occupied more than fifteen minutes.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

They are mentioned by the poet Claudian as— “ A stream unfettered pent in crystal round, A truant fount by hardened waters bound. ”
— from The Magic and Science of Jewels and Stones by Isidore Kozminsky

General Booth shows himself in the capacity of a bold and shifty mariner who has been ordered to take a ship filled with precious cargo across a stormy and rock-strewn ocean to a distant port.
— from Darkest India A Supplement to General Booth's "In Darkest England, and the Way Out" by Frederick St. George De Lautour Booth-Tucker

If there is something under it that prevents its closing, the water will flow back into the pump chamber again as soon as the plunger is drawn back.
— from Farm Engines and How to Run Them: The Young Engineer's Guide by James H. Stephenson

"I will tell you what I will do; I will write to an intelligent colored man in each of the largest settlements of colored people, Chatham, Amhurstburg, and Sandwich, and will receive replies from each within four days, and I will give you the result of their inquiries."
— from A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland by Laura S. (Laura Smith) Haviland

A policeman came along, and stood for a little while looking at the prostrate woman.
— from Cast Adrift by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

He had preceded Christina as a sort of van-guard of defense, and she now slowly advanced from a neighboring room.
— from Roderick Hudson by Henry James