In the familiar offices of life he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest citizens of Mecca: the frankness of his manner concealed the artifice of his views; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship or universal benevolence.
— 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

Nevertheless, I {125} readily assented to their request, and promised to bury my two pamphlets in oblivion.
— from The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the Second by Carlo Gozzi

Master Bitherstone read aloud to the rest a pedigree from Genesis (judiciously selected by Mrs. Pipchin), getting over the names with the ease and clearness of a person tumbling up the treadmill.
— from Dickens As an Educator by James L. (James Laughlin) Hughes

Exeter, heir to the crown; yet this very act, by which the king excluded not only his daughter Mary, but his two sisters and their children, every one of whom had a prior right according to the rules at present received, must have caused the sovereignty to be regarded rather as elective in the royal family than properly hereditary—a fatal idea, which converted every member of that family possessed of wealth, talents, or popularity, into a formidable rival, if not to the sovereign on the throne, at least to his next heir, if a woman or a minor, and which may be regarded as the immediate occasion of those cruel proscriptions which stained with kindred blood the closing years of the reign of Henry, and have stamped upon him to all posterity the odious character of a tyrant.
— from Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth by Lucy Aikin

They were all placed in a row, according to their rank and position.
— from Snowdrop & Other Tales by Wilhelm Grimm

Every barge has a rope attached to the raft, and perpetual shouts of joy attend the progress of the white elephant to the capital, where on his arrival he is met by the great dignitaries of the state, and by the monarch himself, who gives the honored visitor some sonorous name and confers on him the rank of nobility.
— from Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is by George B. (George Blagden) Bacon

When he presents you with a bouquet, you notice that the flowers have been plucked up by the roots, and to the roots a portion of the soil still adheres.
— from Dreamthorp A Book of Essays Written in the Country by Alexander Smith

"That Past Sachems be required to procure and wear regalia according to their rank as Past Sachems in this Great Council," and this recommendation was adopted.
— from Redmanship in Kentucky for Fifty Great Suns by Frank L. Smith

Their aim is to prove they have nothing to conceal, and that all is open as noon-day; but the moment troublesome questions are asked, they exhibit a reticence as to their rules and practices which shows how conscious they are that outsiders will object to them.”
— from Clara Maynard; Or, The True and the False: A Tale of the Times by William Henry Giles Kingston