Within this circle is Jehovah's name, Forward and backward anagrammatiz'd, 49 Th' abbreviated 50 names of holy saints, Figures of every adjunct to the heavens, And characters of signs and erring 51 stars, By which the spirits are enforc'd to rise: Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute, And try the uttermost magic can perform.
— from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus From the Quarto of 1604 by Christopher Marlowe

Five zones the heavens contain; whereof is one Aye red with flashing sunlight, fervent aye From fire; on either side to left and right Are traced the utmost twain, stiff with blue ice, And black with scowling storm-clouds, and betwixt These and the midmost, other twain there lie, By the Gods' grace to heart-sick mortals given, And a path cleft between them, where might wheel On sloping plane the system of the Signs.
— from The Georgics by Virgil

For although the latter is a spontaneity and does not, like sense, merely contain intuitions that arise when we are affected by things (and are therefore passive), yet it cannot produce from its activity any other conceptions than those which merely serve to bring the intuitions of sense under rules and, thereby, to unite them in one consciousness, and without this use of the sensibility it could not think at all; whereas, on the contrary, reason shows so pure a spontaneity in the case of what I call ideas [ideal conceptions] that it thereby far transcends everything that the sensibility can give it, and exhibits its most important function in distinguishing the world of sense from that of understanding, and thereby prescribing the limits of the understanding itself.
— from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant

The head of the seed is much less than the former, and opens itself a little round about the top, under the crown, so that the seed, which is very black, will fall out, if one turn the head thereof downward.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

We brought water from the stream which runs among the trees under our windows.
— from Anthem by Ayn Rand

By me and these the work so far accomplish'd, By me earth's elder cloy'd and stifled lands uncloy'd, unloos'd, By me the hemispheres rounded and tied, the unknown to the known.
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

And we must remember also that this undermining of the strength of a presumption by reiterated report of facts to the contrary does not logically require that the facts in question should all be well proved.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

For my part, I would alarm and caution even the political and business reader, and to the utmost extent, against the prevailing delusion that the establishment of free political institutions, and plentiful intellectual smartness, with general good order, physical plenty, industry, &c., (desirable and precious advantages as they all are,) do, of themselves, determine and yield to our experiment of democracy the fruitage of success.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

(This is curious and may not be realized immediately, but it must be realized, I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest, And that the universe does.)
— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

We know nothing about the times when he hoped that he had recovered, attempted to take up work again, and succumbed.
— from Life's Minor Collisions by Frances Lester Warner

And their custom is this, that when travellers come that way, the old women of the place get ready, and take their unmarried daughters or other girls related to them, and go to the strangers who are passing, and make over the young women to whomsoever will accept them; and the travellers take them accordingly and do their pleasure; after which the girls are restored to the old women who brought them, for they are not allowed to follow the strangers away from their home.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 by Rustichello of Pisa

Most people will readily allow, that the useful qualities of the mind are virtuous, because of their utility.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

Aid ye, for ye are goddesses, and clear Can ye remember, and the tale unfold.
— from The Æneid of Virgil, Translated into English Verse by Virgil

Their answers to questions show that they have read and that they understand the Scriptures, and hopes are entertained that one or two at least know experimentally the value of religion.
— from A Visit to the United States in 1841 by Joseph Sturge

The squad changed into football togs in a room assigned to their use in the Academy gymnasium and at a few minutes past two went across the elm-shaded school yard to the athletic field beyond.
— from Quarter-Back Bates by Ralph Henry Barbour

Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish Monarchy, our attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the United States, had remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them.
— from State of the Union Addresses by James Madison

"What a pretty—hood, do you call it?" says Grandon, rather awkwardly, trying to unfasten Violet's wrap.
— from Floyd Grandon's Honor by Amanda M. Douglas

This riddle I, in my turn, propounded to him, with the result that we entered into treaty, by the terms of which it was agreed that no future reference should be made to the meeting by either of us—especially not in the presence of my aunt—and the compact was ratified according to the usual custom, my uncle paying the necessary expenses.
— from John Ingerfield, and Other Stories by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome