As it contained matter on which I thought Steerforth could advise me as well as anyone, and on which I knew I should be delighted to consult him, I resolved to make it a subject of discussion on our journey home.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

To the noblest of the senators who were much reduced in their circumstances, he granted annual allowances, in some cases as much as five hundred thousand sesterces; and to the pretorian cohorts a monthly allowance of corn gratis.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Now in a sable cloud immersed, Now from its gloomy pall he burst, Like the bright Lord of Stars concealed A moment, and again revealed.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki

and were it not that they are both to [1857] lay out money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save charges, and make away themselves, if their corn and cattle miscarry; though they have abundance left, as [1858] Agellius notes.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

“Reginald Musgrave had been in the same college as myself, and I had some slight acquaintance with him.
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Rom. similes a. bacculorum calculis, secundum computantis arbitrium, modo aerei sunt, modo aurei; ad nutum regis nunc beati sunt nunc miseri.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

Presently, whenas it seemed to him time, the physician made the same request to Buffalmacco as he had made Bruno aforetime; whereupon Buffalmacco feigned himself sore chagrined and made a great outcry against Bruno, saying, 'I vow to the High God of Pasignano that I can scarce withhold myself from giving thee such a clout over the head as should cause thy nose drop to thy heels, traitor that thou art; for none other than thou hath discovered these matters to the doctor.'
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio

It feeds on no common food, but on the choicest of gums and spices; and after a life of secular length, it builds in a high tree with cassia, spikenard, cinnamon, and myrrh, and on this nest it expires in sweetest odours.
— from Anglo-Saxon Literature by John Earle

By clauses recently added to the land regulations of British Columbia it is provided that any self-supporting woman over eighteen years of age (except a wife living with her husband) may pre-empt one hundred and sixty acres of agricultural land on the same conditions as men; and this provision is made applicable to deserted wives, and women whose husbands have not contributed to their support for two years, as well as to spinsters and widows.
— from Canada and the British immigrant by Emily P. (Emily Poynton) Weaver

Amid the tumult and magnificence of this royal pageant, she sinks into a reverie; her small native dale of Arc, between its quiet hills, rises on her mind's eye, with its straw-roofed huts, and its clear greensward; where the sun is even then shining so brightly, and the sky is so blue, and all is so calm and motherly and safe.
— from The Life of Friedrich Schiller Comprehending an Examination of His Works by Thomas Carlyle

It was then that Bear Shield drove North like a storm, leaving Sun City a memory, and killing out the last injurious paleface for forty miles around.
— from The Sunset Trail by Alfred Henry Lewis

I'd been saying to myself that when I saw him again--as I meant to--I would know by his eyes at the first glance whether he still cared as much as ever, and if he did, I would ask him to marry me.
— from Lady Betty Across the Water by A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson

Abject as he is, foiled and despised, such a one may not yet be half so contemptible as many a so-counted respectable member of society, who looks down on him from a height too lofty even for scorn.
— from Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald

The Manchester merchants are often termed a millocracy, and words of a similar character are mobocracy and moneyocracy.
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten