M. Janet calls this waking or primary (one can hardly in such a connection say 'normal') state by the name of Lucie 1.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James

It had a wizard monarch called Gwydion, who possessed the power of changing himself into the strangest possible forms.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes

“A good clean bed, a small table covered with a clean cloth, four good chairs, and a large brazier with plenty of fire in it, for I am nearly perishing of cold here.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

This high price of corn, however, seems evidently to have been the effect of the extraordinary unfavourableness of the seasons, and ought, therefore, to be regarded, not as a permanent, but as a transitory and occasional event.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

I desire to express my sincere thanks to Professor Albert S. Cook for advice in matters of form and for inspiration in the work; to Professor Henry A. Beers for painstaking discussion of difficult questions; to Dr. De Winter for help and criticism; to Dr. John M. Berdan for the privilege of consulting his copy of the Folio; to [viii] Mr. Andrew Keogh and to Mr. Henry A. Gruener, for aid in bibliographical matters; and to Professor George L. Burr for the loan of books from the Cornell Library.
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson

The progress of Christianity has been marked by two glorious and decisive victories: over the learned and luxurious citizens of the Roman empire; and over the warlike Barbarians of Scythia and Germany, who subverted the empire, and embraced the religion, of the Romans.
— 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

Yes, he replied; inasmuch as by the natural process of creation He is the author of this and of all other things.
— from The Republic by Plato

Ah, poor old chap, he clings to any straw!
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

In regard to pet lambs—such as are brought up by hand because their mothers have died, and it has been impossible to mother then upon other ewes—the following observation shows their innocent simplicity:— "When the same person feeds the lambs, and this should be the dairymaid, the lambs soon become attached to her, and would follow her every where: but to prevent their bleating, and to make them contented, an apron or a piece of cloth, hung on a stake or bush in the paddock, will keep them together.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 353, March 1845 by Various

This is also true of the mind—in which the unhappy proddings of conscience had better not be cured by anodynes or by evasion unless we are prepared to go deeply enough to make them disappear spontaneously.
— from The Untroubled Mind by Herbert J. (Herbert James) Hall

Or until this wonderful new scientist has perfected his researches to the point of creating human life by chemical process, as well as his present discovery of animating jellyfish!
— from Beyond The Rocks: A Love Story by Elinor Glyn

She had been trained in magic by her mother, and when Cam´ballo, son of Cambuscan´, had slain two of her brothers and was engaged in deadly combat with the third (named Tri´amond), she appeared in the lists in her chariot drawn by two lions, and brought with her a cup of nepenthe, which had the power of converting hate to love, of producing oblivion of sorrow, and of inspiring the mind with celestial joy.
— from Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Here John never made his appearance, but curious to know what Laura was about, Betsy continued her spying until she one day ascertained that, instead of amusing herself with John's article, Miss Laura resorted to the place for the purpose of consoling herself with a very insufficient substitute for what Betsy had suspected to be the offending member.
— from Laura Middleton; Her Brother and her Lover by Anonymous

Under the pretense of crushing heresy, as it was called, the House of Austria meant to extend and establish its power in the empire; as, on the other hand, many Protestant princes, under the pretense of extirpating idolatry, or at least of securing toleration, meant only to enlarge their own dominions or privileges.
— from Letters to His Son, 1748 On the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman by Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of

He avowed it as his settled conviction, however, that the only effectual process of civilizing his people, must be their amalgamation with the blood of the whites; that the Indian could only be tamed by intermarriages.
— from Life of Joseph Brant—Thayendanegea (Vol. II) Including the Border Wars of the American Revolution and Sketches of the Indian Campaigns of Generals Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne; And Other Matters Connected with the Indian Relations of the United States and Great Britain, from the Peace of 1783 to the Indian Peace of 1795 by William L. (William Leete) Stone

The men who grub in their local registers, and slowly compile parish or county history, deserve to be encouraged rather than depressed.
— from Books and Bookmen by Andrew Lang

He had, now, plenty of contributors; he didn’t know about employing a new one.
— from Ruth Hall: A Domestic Tale of the Present Time by Fanny Fern